THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


MY  FRIEND  THE  BOSS, 


BY 


EDWARD  E.  HALE, 

AUTHOR  OP  "HAMPTON,"  "MR.  TANGIER'S  VACATIONS,"  "TEN 
TIMES  ONE  is  TEN,"  "  IN  His  NAME,"  "A  MAN 
WITHOUT  A  COUNTRY,"  ETC.,  ETC. 


BOSTON : 
J.  STILMAN  SMITH  &  COMPANY. 

1888. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1888,  by 

J.  STILMAN  SMITH  &  COMPANY, 
in  tbe  Office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress  at  Washington. 


PREFACE. 


IT  is  always  interesting  to  see  how  rich  men  spend 
their  money.  It  often  seems  as  if  they  took  more 
pleasure  in  earning  it  than  in  spending  it.  Sometimes 
it  seems  as  if  they  did  not  know  how  to  spend  it  when 
it  was  earned. 

In  the  best  days  of  Athens,  and  in  some  of  the  days 
which  were  not  the  best,  the  rich  men  of  that  city 
fairly  vied  with  each  other  in  showing  how  they  could 
expend  large  sums  in  its  public  service.  Happily  for 
us,  we  see  such  people  now,  —  as  when  a  man  spends 
largely  to  improve  the  music  of  a  city,  or  a  woman  to 
improve  its  schools. 

I  have  thought  that  a  man  might,  with  as  much  in 
terest,  spend  his  money  in  securing  good  government  for 
his  home,  as  in  making  sure  that  he  had  a  good  yacht, 
or  in  maintaining  a  fine  stable  of  fast  horses.  Men 
spend  money  to  secure  their  own  election  to  public 
office.  It  would  be  more  agreeable  to  spend  money 
wisely,  for  making  good  government  sure,  without 
spoiling  the  expenditure  by  the  taint  of  corruption. 


853571 


iy  PREFACE. 

"Mv  FRIEND  THE  Boss,"  as  he  says  himself,  likes 
good  government,  is  willing  to  give  his  time  to  secure 
it,  and,  with  his  time,  his  money.  He  does  this  in  a 
legitimate  way,  and  he  has  his  reward. 

This  little  book  was  in  type  some  years  ago,  but  its 
publication  has  been  deferred  by  a  series  of  accidents. 

EDWARD  E.  HALE. 

BOSTON,  July  8, 1888. 


CONTENTS. 


I.  John  Fisher's  Home 1 

II.  Breakfast  and  what  Followed 7 

III.  A  Morning  Drive 12 

IV.  What  does  John  Fisher  do  ? 14 

V.  Tim  Flaherty's  Wife 17 

VI.  A  Party  at  Lunch 21 

VII.  An  Out-Door  Party 27 

VIII.  The  Plan  of  Campaign 34 

IX.  Mrs.  Grattan 48 

X.  The  Reformed  Covenanters 50 

XI.  A  Temperance  Meeting 57 

XII.  A  Chapter  Interpolated  in  Mr.  Mullen's  Memoirs      .  06 

XIII.  Laying  a  Corner  Stone 71 

XIV.  The  Necklace 84 

XV.  The  Saint's  Rest  and  Morning  Call 85 

XVI.  A  Dinner  Party 91 

XVII.  Captain  Winborn's  Story 102 

XVIII.  A  Ratification  Meeting 109 

XIX.  A  Ride  Home 124 

XX.  School  Exhibition 127 

XXI.  Another  Interpolated  Chapter 136 

XXII.  Mr.  Mellen  Resumes  the  Pen .  146 

XXIII.  A  Serenade 150 

XXIV.  What  did  He  want  of  Me  1 160 

XXV.  The  Fatal  Tuesday 167 

XXVI.  What  is  the  News  ? 175 

XXVII.  The  Surprise 188 


MY  FRIEND  .THE  Boss. 


CHAPTER  I. 

'T"VHE  train  was  exactly  on  time.  We  rolled  into  a  cheer 
ful  and  comfortable  station ,  perfectly  lighted  by  electrici 
ty,  and,  as  I  staggered  from  the  car  with  bag,  valise,  shawl 
and  umbrella  all  in  my  hands,  it  was  into  noonday  light 
that  I  descended. 

In  a  moment  a  natty  groom  took  from  me  these  impedi 
ments,  almost  without  asking  leave,  and  in  a  moment  more 
I  was  shaking  hands  with  his  master. 

"  Know  you?"  said  he,  "  I  should  think  so  !  Saw  you 
on  the  platform.  There  are  not  so  many  of  your  build, 
and  really  your  hair  has  stood  test  better  than  most  of  us." 
So  we  walked  to  his  comfortable  carriage.  My  "  traps  "  or 
"  plunder"  were  put  in,  Michael  went  back  with  the  check  for 
my  trunk,  and  John  and  I  went  on  talking  together,  as  we 
had  done  thirty  years  before,  and  as  if  we  had  not  parted  for 
a  week. 

In  truth  we  had  parted  thirty  years  before,  as  I  say,  at 
the  corner  of  Hollis,  at  half-past  four  in  the  morning.  Our 
class  supper  had  ended,  perhaps  half  an  hour  before,  and 
John  and  I  had  stood  there,  talking,  in  the  early  dawn. 
Street  cars  were  just  invented.  He  took  the  earliest  car 
into  town  that  he  might  catch  such  lightning  express  for  the 
West  as  then  existed.  I  went  to  bed.  We  shook  hands 
heartily,  and  he  said,  "  God  knows  when  we  shall  meet 
again."  Thirty  years  had  sent  us  backward  and  forward 


2  MY   FRIEND    THE   BOSS. 

over  the  world,  in  fun,  and  in  fight,  in  good  fortune  and 
bad,  and  at  last  we  met, — as  I  say,  under  the  Arc-lights 
in  the  station  house  at  Tannvorth. 

"When  have  you  seen  Gilman?  And  how  is  Flagg?" 
Such  questions,  and  a  world  of  others  like  them,  crowded  our 
little  ride. 

His  house  is  a  palace,  and  a  large  one  at  that.  Many  a 
courier  in  Europe  has  dragged  me  to  see  many  a  palace  of 
this  or  that  little  King  of  Bavaria,  or  Wiirtcmberg,  or  Weiss- 
nicht-Wo,  in  which  no  one  would  display  such  generous 
hospitality  as  could  John  in  this  house  in  Waban  Avenue. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  traditions  of  Waban,  whoever  he  was, 
still  held  here,  and  one  had  here  also,  the  homely  comforts 
of  a  log  cabin.  There  is  but  one  other  palace  known  to  me, 
of  which  one  can  say  the  same.  The  family  had  dined, 
but  after  I  had  washed  and  dressed,  my  cheerful  little  din 
ner  was  served,  and  John  and  his  wife,  and  two  or  three 
wide-awake  boys  and  girls,  gave  me  moral  support  and  com 
fort,  as  I  ate  it.  In  fifteen  minutes  more  I  was  as  much 
at  home  with  the  children  as  if  I  had  gone  to  chapel  with 
them  for  four  years,  as  I  had  with  their  father,  and  had,  with 
them,  prompted  and  been  prompted  through  difficult  passages 
in  ^Eschines  and  Isocrates. 

As  eight  o'clock  drew  near,  it  proved  that  some  of  them 
were  going  to  the  concert  of  the  Jubal  Club.  Would  I  like  to 
hear  the  music,  or  would  I  rest  in  the  library? 

"  Tired  !  "  I  was  not  tired.  How  should  I  be  tired  after 
seven  hours  in  that  comfortable  Wagner  palace?  I  have 
been  far  more  tired  after  three  hours  in  my  own  study,  with 
Tom,  Dick  and  Harry  ;  Miss  A. ,  Miss  B.  and  Miss  C.  ;  Mrs. 
X.,  Mrs.  Y.  and  Mrs.  Z.,  all  just  "looking  in  for  a  moment," 


MY   FRIEND   THE   BOSS.  6 

and  "  so  sorry  to  interrupt  me,  and  knowing  how  busy  I 
was, — but  would  I  just  be  kind  enough  to  grind  their  dull 
axes  for  them  ?  "  Now,  in  the  Wagner,  nobody  calls  on  you, 
there  is  no  mail,  the  telegram  cannot  find  you,  you  have  one 
or  two  good  novels,  and,  if  you  want,  you  may  write  a  chap 
ter  in  your  Serial,  or  a  leader  for  the  Daily  Argus.  You 
have  everything  except  a  dead  grandfather  and  a  hornet's 
nest  to  make  you  comfortable,  and  there  is  no  man  to  terrify 
or  make  afraid. 

I  was  not  at  all  tired,  and  so  I  joined  the  Jubal  party. 
Two  carriages  came  to  the  door,  and  people  appeared  whom 
I  had  not  seen.  They  were  not  then  explained  to  me,  but  I 
came  to  know  them  well,  and  so  will  this  reader,  I  hope. 

The  music  was  very  good.  But  I  believe  I  was  more 
taken  by  the  house  and  by  the  orchestra.  I  said  to  myself, 
for  the  hundredth  time,  that  when,  at  the  West,  they  do  a  thing, 
they  do  it  with  the  finest  edge  and  the  most  perfect  polish.  I 
had  seen  no  such  Opera  House  as  this  in  Philadelphia  or  New 
York.  Far  less  had  I  seen  any  such  audience  in  Munich,  or 
in  Florence.  Good-natured,  easily  pleased, — yes,  that  is  th« 
habit  of  people,  in  proportion  as  they  are  near  a  frontier. 
They  have  not  yet  got  over  the  habit  of  thanking  God  that  they 
have  anything.  They  measure  the  concert  against  the  howling 
wilderness  still,  and  do  not  compare  it  with  some  reminiscence 
of  what  it  was  when  Arion  led  the  orchestra,  and  Orpheus 
was  the  tenor.  But  this  was  not  merely  the  good-natured 
audience  of  Cheyenne  or  of  Tombstone.  I  knew  those  audi 
ences.  These  people  knew  what  was  good,  and  listened,  and 
were  still,  and  applauded  sympathetically.  Regarding  which 
sympathy  of  theirs,  I  was  to  learn  more. 

"  Tumble  into  any  carriage,"  cried  John  to  me,  as  I  stood 


4  MY   FRIEND    THE    BOSS. 

under  the  great  porte-cochere  with  his  daughter  Nelly,  after 
all  was  over.  "  Do  not  stay  on  the  order  of  your  coming." 
And  I  dimly  made  out,  that  in  place  of  the  two  carriages 
which  had  brought  us,  four  or  five  were  now  receiving  our 
party,  and  that  the  party,  somehow,  had  grown.  And,  when 
we  came  back  to  Waban  Avenue,  this  proved  to  be  so.  Into 
the  large  drawing-room, — come  not  the  little-  home  party 
only,  but  people  whom  I  had  not  seen,  and,  among  them,  one 
or  two  whom  I  was  quite  sure  that  I  had  seen  on  the  stage. 
A  Mr.  Ferguson,  Avhose  exquisite  violin  had  brought  back 
the  Ole  Bull  of  my  boyhood,  and  Mrs.  Savage,  one  of  the 
soprano  singers,  with  a  voice  which  made  you  love  her,  rather 
than  admire  her.  Sure  enough,  we  had  with  us  the  very 
choicest  of  the  musical  authorities  of  the  town. 

We  congratulated  and  we  made  our  compliments.  We 
sank  into  tete-a-tete  chairs  and  talked  gravely  about  Wag 
ner,  and  gladly  about  Mozart.  I  was  listening  to  a  very 
curious  story  about  something  which  happened  behind  the 
scenes  at  La  Scala,  when  a  servant  announced  supper. 
Every  gentleman  gave  his  arm  to  a  lady,  and  I  followed 
with  Miss  Mary  Bell,  one  of  the  inmates  of  the  house,  a 
visitor  like  myself.  We  came  into  the  large  dining-room, 
a  beautiful  room  which  I  had  not  seen  before,  and  here  an 
elegant  supper  was  laid  for  a  party,  which  must  have  num 
bered  four  and  twenty. 

You  would  thank  me,  dear  reader,  if  I  could  and  would 
write  down,  for  you,  every  word  of  the  jolly  talk  ;  the  funny 
story-telling  ;  the  grave  discussion  of  the  groups,  which  fell 
into  talk  and  even  into  song  as  the  next  two  hours  went  by. 
There  was  one  very  merry  party  around  John  at  our  end  of 
the  table.  There  were  six  or  eight  others  around  his  wife 


MY    FRIEND    THE    BOSS.  O 

at  her  end,  with  their  own  thread  of  discussion,  their  own 
bursts  of  laughter,  and,  once  or  twice,  they  commanded 
silence  as  they  put  up  Mr.  Dunning  to  a  verse  of  a  song. 
Some  four  or  five,  on  each  side  of  the  table,  midway,  gave 
allegiance  and  attention  to  either  of  these  groups,  or  had 
their  own  talk  across  the  table,  where  no  high  pyramid  of 
flowers  cut  off  easy  story-telling.  And,  often  and  often,  all 
voices  but  one  were  lulled,  as  in  those  songs  of  Dunning's, 
or  when  some  approved  story-teller  launched  on  some  fact 
or  fiction,  which  by  common  consent,  the  rest  chose  to  hear. 

What  was  evident,  from  the  first  minute,  was,  that  I  was 
the  only  person  who  was  in  the  very  least  a  stranger  there. 
The  others, — why  one  would  say  that  they  were  there  every 
week  in  their  lives.  And,  before  I  had  done  with  this 
household,  I  found  that  in  fact  they  were. 

I  had  chances  for  long,  serious  talk,  and  for  much  funny 
chaff,  with  this  Miss  Bell,  whom,  almost  by  accident,  I  had 
led  out  to  supper.  Yes,  I  liked  her  from  the  first,  though 
at  first  I  was  afraid  of  her.  I  did  not  understand  her  at 
first.  Perhaps  I  do  not  understand  her  now.  It  is  so  hard 
to  understand  a  person  who  does  not  wholly  understand 
herself. 

She  gave  me  some  keys  to  the  company  with  whom  I  was 
to  make  this  visit.  For  John  Fisher  himself,  in  whose 
house  we  were,  she  had  unmixed  respect  and  a  queer  vein  of 
familiarity  side  by  side  with  strange  moods  of  reserve.  I 
did  not  in  the  least  make  it  out  that  evening,  but  now  I 
think  I  understand  it.  Of  Mrs.  Fisher,  she  would  abso 
lutely  say  nothing.  Once  and  again  I  led  the  conversation 
that  way,  and,  every  time,  I  found  it  landed  promptly  on 
some  distant  shore,  and  before  I  knew  it,  we  were  talking 


b  MY   FRIEND    THE   BOSS. 

of  Madame  de  S6vigne",  or  of  Cetawayo,  or  of  Julius  Caesar. 
When  I  found  out,  as  I  did  before  long,  that  Mrs.  Fisher 
was  a  fool,  pure  and  simple,  I  saw  why  Miss  Bell  had  been 
thus  unwilling  to  discuss  her  with  a  stranger. 

As  to  herself,  Miss  Bell  was  tall,  easy  in  manner,  a  little 
shy  in  expressing  herself.  She  was,  clearly  enough,  used 
to  society,  and,  as  I  found  afterwards,  to  society  in  all  its 
forms.  Yet  I  thought  then,  and  I  know  now,  that  if  you 
had  put  her  for  a  month  in  a  log  cabin  on  an  Adirondack 
mountain,  and  had  sent  ravens  to  feed  her,  while  the  spring 
supplied  her  drink,  she  would  not  have  found  her  time  hang 
heavy.  She  seemed  to  take  the  society  of  those  around  her 
as  something  which  she  was  glad  to  have  ;  yet  I  fancied  she 
would  not  have  walked  two  miles  to  seek  it,  if  it  had  not 
happened  to  be  there.  Pretty  clearly,  she  had  not  solved 
all  her  conundrums  yet,  and  she  thought  some  of  them  hard 
to  solve.  But  which  conundrums  these  were,  she  would 
not  tell  me,  a  stranger.  She  had  not  that  fatal  facility  of 
confidence. 

We  all  fairly  lounged  over  the  supper  table,  and  nobody 
wanted  to  break  the  spell.  It  was  long  after  midnight 
when  Mrs.  Savage  rose,  and  said,  "  We  shall  all  be  as 
sleepy  as  bats  to-morrow,"  and  bade  Mrs.  Fisher  good  even 
ing.  This  broke  up  the  whole.  The  party  bade  good-bye 
in  the  drawing-room,  and  in  fifteen  minutes  we  of  the 
household  were  in  our  bed-chambers. 

Then  I  tried  to  recollect  whether  John  Fisher  had  shown 
any  musical  enthusiasms  in  college.  Had  this  all  developed 
late  in  life  ?  Surely  he  was  not  in  the  college  choir,  yet  he 
would  have  been,  had  he  known  C  sharp  when  he  saw  it. 
Certainly  not  in  the  glee  club  !  Nor  had  he  any  piano  then. 


MY   FRIEND   THE   BOSS.  7 

But  then  he  had  not  money  enough,  in  those  days,  for  a 
piano.  But,  leaving  pianos  aside,  so  few  fellows  had 
pianos  thirty  years  ago.  I  could  not  recollect  that  John 
even  had  a  Jew's-harp.  I  did  not  remember  that  he  ever 
whistled  a  tune.  How  strangely  fellows  do  turn  out ! 

Of  the  whole  crew  of  us,  John  Fisher  was  the  very  last  I 
should  ever  have  thought  of  as  President  of  a  Jubal  club 
and  the  leading  virtuoso  in  music  of  a  great  city  ! 


CHAPTER  II. 

some  of  us  breakfast  is  a  critical  business,  and 
the  prosperity  of  our  day  largely  depends  upon  it.  I 
was,  therefore,  glad  enough  to  find  that  it  was  not  shuffled 
out  of  sight,  in  mad  haste,  at  John  Fisher's,  but  recognized 
as  the  glad  solemnity,  not  to  say  sacrament,  which  it  is, 
loved  and  lingered  over,  and  regarded  indeed  as  the  first 
friend  of  the  day  and  not  as  a  skirmishing  enemy. 

How  sad  the  household  where  breakfast  is  simply  the 
hasty  fighting  place,  where  the  man  of  the  household  seizes 
a  buttered  roll  in  his  hands,  gulps  down  his  cup  of  ruined 
coffee  and  runs  for  his  inexorable  train  ! 

At  John  Fisher's,  on  my  first  morning  there,  I  found 
many,  many  things  to  eat,  in  that  American  abundance 
which  contrasts  so  agreeably  with  the  "Toast,  sir?" 
"  Mutton  chop,  sir?"  "Muffins,  sir?"  which  constitute 
the  stock  in  trade  of  the  chef  at  an  English  inn. 


8  MY   FRIEND   THE   BOSS. 

More  important  than  this,  they  were  lavish  as  to  time. 

"  I  am  awake  now,"  John  Fisher  would  say  ;  "  and  we 
are  by  ourselves,  now.  Heaven  knows  where  we  may  be 
at  lunch ;  or  who  may  be  here  at  dinner,  or  at  supper." 

John  Fisher  had  invariably  been  up  before  breakfast. 
He  had  imbibed  his  oxygen  and  his  ozone  on  some  piazza 
or  stoop,  while  he  read  his  morning  paper.  Perhaps  he 
had  had  an  early  cup  of  coffee. 

He  would  come  into  the  breakfast-room  among  the  first, 
throwing  the  newspaper  away  as  he  did,  and  exclaiming 
that  there  was  not  a  word  of  news,  and  that  he  did  not  see 
how  people  could  live  and  print  such  stuff. 

"  Now,  here  is  a  stock-broker's  rumor  that  the  Emperor 
of  Germany  has  broken  his  leg.  Why,  I  had  a  dispatch  at 
my  counting-room  when  I  went  down  town  yesterday,  to 
say  it  was  all  a  lie,  from  our  own  man  at  Vienna." 

I  intimated  gently,  that  the  local  editor  at  Tamworth 
probably  did  not  have  ' '  his  own  man "  at  Vienna.  At 
which  suggestion  John  was  well  pleased.  The  truth  was, 
that  he  was  so  well  informed  a  man  himself,  that  the  aver 
age  "chief"  of  a  journal  would  have  been  at  disadvantage  in 
meeting  him. 

"  Now  we  will  not  hurry,"  he  said,  as  he  sat  welcoming 
one  and  another  arrival,  after  he  had  asked  a  blessing  on 
the  day.  "We  will  not  hurry.  At  lunch  we  shall  have 
to  hurry.  At  dinner  we  may  have  to  be  grand.  Who 
knows  whether  there  will  be  any  supper?  Here  is  break 
fast  ;  this  is  a  fixed  fact.  And  unless  the  ground  opens 
and  swallows  us  up,  we  are  well-nigh  sure. 

"  What  do  you  say?  Do  you  begin  with  fruit?  Or  there 
is  oatmeal  on  the  side-table.  Miss  Bell  will  give  you  ome- 


MY    FRIEND    THE    BOSS.  0 

lettc  ;  or,  I  will  give  you  a  piece  of  steak  ;  or,  there  is  fish. 
That  white  fish  is  fresh.  Jonas  brought  it  in,  whfle  I  put 
on  my  necktie." 

And  then  he  began  talking.  On  this  particular  morning, 
he  was  in  excellent  spirits.  He  was  never  in  bad  spirits, 
indeed.  But  sometimes  he  talked  more  gayly  than  at  others, 
and  this  was  one  of  these  times. 

"What  I  mean,  Cordelia,  is  this,"  said  he.  He  had 
been  talking  with  her  on  the  piazza,  before  breakfast.  "  It 
is  a  great  waste  of  capital,  by  which  you  story-tellers  intro 
duce  a  new  hero,  a  new  heroine  ;  or,  a  new  second  hero,  or 
new  second  heroine  ;  a  new  villain's  tool  and  a  new  villain's 
fool,  with  every  story  you  tell.  I  hardly  know  their  names, 
I  am  so  stupid,  before  you  wind  up  the  book. 

"  Then  I  have  to  buy  a  new  book,  and  to  learn  another 
set  of  names. 

"  Now  if  my  business  were  story  writing, — and  I  some 
times  wish  it  were, — I  would  do  as  the  Chinese  do  with 
their  plays.  I  would  let  the  story  run  on  and  on,  just  as 
life  does.  People  could  begin  to  read  where  they  like,  and 
leave  off  where  they  like,  as  they  do  at  that  Normal  School 
in  Ohio  which  you  told  about.  They  need  not  buy  the 
early  numbers,  and  they  need  not  hold  on  till  my  death. 

"  Indeed,  when  I  died  I  would  leave  the  good- will  of  my 
story,  as  David  Crockett  did  his  almanac." 

"  How  was  that?"  said  Mrs.  Grattan,  laughing. 

"Why,  there  was  a  comic  almanac  published,  called 
'  Crockett's  Almanac,'  full  of  hunting  stories,  alligator  fights, 
and  so  on, — very  popular  among  boys  like  me,  and  Tom 
there.  One  unfortunate  day,  Davy  Crockett  was  killed  at 
Alamo,  if  you  know  what  that  was  ?  " 


10  MY    FRIEND    THE    BOSS. 

Mrs.  G-rattan  shook  her  head  for  "no,"  like  a  guilty 
thing. 

"  No  matter.  He  was  killed.  But  the  almanac  appeared 
all  the  same.  And  it  bore  the  statement  that  he  had  '  com 
pleted  the  preparations,  calculations  and  all,  for  five  years 
in  advance,  before  he  ever  went  to  Texas.' 

"  Now  that  is  the  way  to  start  a  novel." 

I  said  some  German  said  that  the  Iliad  has  no  introduc 
tion  and  no  conclusion,  that  it  is  just  like  a  Greek  frieze. 
The  head  of  a  horse  sticks  in  at  the  left,  and  the  tail  of  a 
horse  sticks  out  at  the  right,  and  it  is  supposed  that  you 
know  that  the  head  has  a  tail  and  the  tail  has  a  head. 

"  Just  so,"  said  John.  "  A  sensible  German.  Find  his 
address  and  I  will  send  him  our  new  illustrated  catalogue 
from  the  shop.  I  do  not  doubt  he  will  give  us  an  order." 

Mary  Bell  said  that  Trollope  did  work  in  this  way,  so  far 
as  his  inferior  people  go.  The  background  of  his  story  is 
always  familiar  ground. 

"Exactly,"  said  John  Fisher,  "and  that  is  why  we 
everyday  working  people  liked  Trollope  so  much.  And 
when  I  found  from  his  book  that  he  reeled  off  novels,  as  I 
do  machinery,  twelve  pages  every  day  he  lived ;  glad  or 
sorry,  sick  or  well,  at  sea  or  at  home  ;  one  steady,  twelve- 
page  grind,  why  I  could  have  kissed  him,  and  I  would,  if 
he  would  appear  to  me  a  vision.  He  wrote  novels  as  the 
British  government  built  gunboats." 

"  How  was  that?  "  asked  Cordelia  Grattan. 

"You  are  so  good-natured.  You  have  heard  me  tell 
twenty  times.  Thank  you  for  being  so  civil.  They  used 
to  build  a  long  trough  of  gunboat  out  into  the  sea.  Then, 
when  an  order  came  for  a  new  gunboat,  why,  they  cut  off 


MY    FRIEND    THE    BOSS.  11 

eighty-six  feet  and  fastened  on  a  ready-made  bow  and  a 
ready-made  stern,  and  sent  her  to  sea  ;  had  another  ready- 
made  bow  and  stern  for  the  next,  and  so  on.  They  could 
deliver  a  great  many  in  a  week." 

"I  wish  you  would  write  a  novel,"  said  Mrs.  Grattan. 
"  You  would  not  be  near  so  hard  on  us  who  do." 

"  Take  care,  or  I  will.  The  very  first  day  the  mail  fails, 
so  that  I  have  no  letters  ;  bridge  broken  at  Taladega ;  snow 
drift  at  Girard,  I  will  call  Miss  Typewriter, — her  real 
name  is  Jones, — and  I  will  begin  : 

' '  '  James  could  not  hold  in  his  anger  at  this  announce 
ment.'  And  I  tell  you  the  public  will  start,  when  they  find 
such  a  prompt  beginning  as  that,  and  when  the  chapter  ends 
with  'Hector ! '  she  cried,  as  she  found  the  treacherous 
sods  gave  way,  and  she  was  falling  through  space ' 

"Will  they  not  be  uneasy,  then,  till  the  next  chapter 
arrives,  in  the. next  number  of  The  Century? 

"But  that  is  what  life  is.  Heavens!  am  I  not  now 
going  clown  town  to  have  a  cable  from '  London  tell  me  that 
Mr.  Gladstone  has  been  struck  in  the  head  by  a  paving- 
stone?  And  then  the  dispatch  will  stop.  And  if  he  dies, 
all  values  will  decline,  and  I  shall  stop  the  works  and  we 
shall  all  retire  to  that  log-cabin  in  Purchasville,  which  is 
the  property  of  Cordelia's  uncle,  and  shall  live  there  on 
ground  nuts. 

"And  if  he  lives,  all  values  will  boom,  and  I  shall  pre 
sent  to  each  of  you  a  diamond  necklace  for  a  birthday  present. 

"You  are  all,  always,  sitting  on  the  edge  of  such  a  vol 
cano  ;  and  yet  you  think  William  Black's  guidebook 
stories  interesting,  and  talk  to  me  of  the  plot  of  the  Duchess's 
farrago.  Lucky  for  you  that  I  do  not  write  novels." 


12  MY    FRIEND    THE    BOSS. 

"  Indeed,  indeed  !"  said  Mrs.  Grattan.  "I  shall  pray 
for  a  snow-drift  at  Girard.  Once  you  try  with  your  Miss 
Jones,  you  will  wish  you  had  forty  of  your  old  letters  to 
answer.  Stay  at  home  to-day,  and  help  my  hero  out  of  his 
scrapes.  I  will  go  to  the  office,  and  your  Miss  Jones  and 
I  will  see  to  the  mail." 

No,  John  Fisher  would  not  do  that.  But  he  said  he 
would  take  us  all  to  the  office,  and  then  if  I  liked  I  might 
take  the  ladies  to  drive.  He  would  leave  the  carriage  and 
horses  with  us.  We  might  call  for  him  at  one  o'clock 
and  he  would  come  home  to  lunch.  And  to  this  we  gladly 
agreed. 

By  the  ladies  were  meant  Mrs.  Fisher  and  Miss  Mary 
Bell.  We  were  to  start  in  half  an  hour.  We  left  the 
breakfast-table  for  family  prayers.  Fisher  read  a  few 
verses  from  the  Bible ;  we  all  offered  the  Lord's  Prayer, 
and  with  Mrs.  Grattan  at  the  piano,  sang  two  verses  of  a 
hymn.  Every  one  disappeared  with  the  understanding 
that  we  were  to  meet  for  our  drive  in  half  an  hour. 


CHAPTER  III. 

TN  half  an  hour  Fisher  and  I  stood  on  the  steps,  and  Miss 
Bell  joined  us.     But  word  came  down  from  Mrs.  Fisher 

that  she  was  too  busy,  and  would  not  come.     Neither  of 

the  others  seemed  surprised. 

"  Go  ask  Mrs.  Grattan  if  she  would  like  to  ride,"  said 


MY    FRIEND    THE    BOSS.  13 

Fisher  to  the  maid.  "  Say  there  is  an  empty  seat,  if  she 
likes  it." 

To  my  surprise,  Mrs.  Grattan  appeared  immediately, 
ready  for  the  drive,  as  if  she  had  been  expected.  I  found 
afterwards,  that  whenever  Mrs.  Fisher  said  she  would  go, 
she  did  not ;  and  whenever  she  declined,  she  afterwards 
changed  her  mind,  like  the  boys  in  the  parable.  It  made 
no  inconvenience,  for  every  one  in  the  house  calculated  abso 
lutely  on  this  habit  of  hers. 

Like  most  men  who  have  lived  much  in  action  in  the 
open  air,  Fisher  liked  to  drive  his  own  horses,  rather  than 
to  have  a  coachman  drive  them.  A  great  carriage  builder 
once  told  me,  that  he  had  to  devise  special  carriages  for  the 
need  of  men  of  wealth  who  want  to  be  their  own  coachmen. 
I  sympathize  with  the  men  of  wealth. 

Fisher  discovered  a  short  cut  which  took  us  off  the 
crowded  street  at  once,  and  in  a  minute  he  was  in  the  gay 
est  talk  as  he  drove  to  his  works,  perhaps  a  mile  out  of 
town.  Then  he  called  a  lad  to  stand  by  the  horses,  and 
asked  me  to  come  in  for  a  moment  to  see  his  workshop. 

"  You  need  not  leave  the  carriage,"  he  said  to  the  ladies. 
"  This  is  an  old  story  to  you,  and  I  will  not  keep  him  two 
minutes." 

He  wanted  to  show  me  a  particular  contrivance  for  the 
transfer  of  power,  of  which  we  had  been  talking,  and,  with 
just  a  nod  to  the  people  we  met,  he  led  the  way  to  the  long, 
low  room  where  we  could  see  this.  We  were  talking  all 
the  way  about  people  and  things. 

I  saw  the  bit  of  machinery  ;  I  understood  the  difficulties 
and  the  success  enough  to  ask  the  right  questions  about  it. 
1  heard  part  of  what  he  said,  and  three-quarters  of  it  I  lost, 


14  MY   FRIEND   THE    BOSS. 

in  the  whirr  of  wheels,  the  stamping  of  hammers,  and  the 
trill  of  saws.  When  we  came  out  on  the  stairway,  he  said  : 

"  Her  fortune  was  enormous  then,  and  it  is  larger  now. 
And  really,  all  she  wants  to  know  is  how  to  spend  the 
income  of  it,  for  the  good  of  man  and  the  love  of  God.  You 
see  she  is  as  simple  in  her  taste  and  dress  as  if  she  were  my 
typewriter." 

It  would  have  been  better,  perhaps,  had  I  asked  whom 
he  was  talking  about.  But  I  did  not  like  to,  and  I  had 
not  a  moment  to  think.  Probably  it  was  one  of  the  ladies 
in  the  carriage.  For  I  had  spoken  of  Miss  Mary  Bell 
before  the  clatter  had  begun. 

I  was  no  fool,  and  I  should  find  out  before  our  drive  was 
over. 

"  I  leave  yon  with  the  ladies,"  he  said.  "  There  are 
one  hundred  and  six  different  drives  from  this  place,  each 
more  lovely  than  the  other." 

"  What  they  do  not  know  about  them  is  not  worth 
knowing.  So,  bon  voyage  !  " 

"  Be  prompt  at  one,  Mrs.  Grattan,  or  I  will  dictate  two 
novels." 

And  so  we  started. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

T  MUST  not  describe  the  drive.     If  I  do  we  shall  never 

be  done. 

I  told  the  ladies  that  they  meant  to  pile  all  their  treasures 
together.  Mary  Bell  was  an  enthusiast  in  the  open  air. 
Her  complete  knowledge  of  the  outer  world  and  sympathy 


MY   FRIEND    THE    BOSS.  15 

with  everything  that  has  life  made  a  curious  contrast  with  a 
certain  quietness  of  manner  as  we  sat  talking  at  home. 

Mrs.  Grattan,  as  perhaps  became  a  novel-writer,  was  an 
enthusiast  and  a  dreamer  in  her  way.  But  she  did  not  pre 
tend  to  know  any  difference  but  that  of  color  between  the 
purple  of  ripened  grasses  as  the  sun  struck  them,  and  the 
brown  of  sedge  in  a  swamp,  such  as  could  hardly  be  found 
elsewhere  on  that  side  of  the  Mississippi. 

"  No,  Mary,"  she  would  say,  "it  is  quite  enough  that 
one  of  us  knows  these  things.  You  shall  expound  and 
explain  to  me  and  when  I  forget,  for  I  shall  forget,  you 
shall  expound  again  ;  and  you  are  so  good,  Mary,  that  you 
will  not  mind  if  I  make  you  tell  me  twenty  times." 

Under  the  direction  of  these  two  fanatics  I  drove  the 
bays,  that  morning,  up  hill  and  down  dale,  across  the  table 
land,  through  swamps,  by  the  side  of  brooks,  to  this  "  shed 
line  "  and  that,  for  twenty  different  points  of  observation. 
We  passed  by  hill-sides  where  the  purple  grasses  grew,  we 
passed  across  meadows  where  late  asters  grew,  we  got 
glimpses  of  the  blue  of  the  far-away  hills,  we  caught  the 
reflection  of  red  maples  in  a  dozen  different  lakes,  and  came 
round  by  the  usual  cemetery,  established  on  the  site  of  an 
old  Indian  battle-ground.  Of  all  this  I  must  tell  no  detail, 
but  rather  what  I  learned,  such  as  it  was,  of  the  life  and 
fortunes  of  my  college  friend,  John  Fisher. 

"You  are  here  to  speak  to  the  Temperance  people,  are 
you  not?  "  said  Mrs.  Grattan  to  me  as  we  came  to  a  long 
causeway,  where  for  a  minute,  even  Mary  Bell  had  no 
b^ta.niKiing  vo  rave  c£>cut,  nor  distant  cumulus  to  wonder  at. 

66  Yes,'*  II  said,  "  I  had  agreed  to  speak  at  a  great  meet 
ing  wiich  was  to  be  held  before  the  election,  and  when 


16  MY   FRIEND   THE   BOSS. 

Fisher  heard  of  this  he  wrote  to  me  that  I  was  to  come 
direct  from  Omaha  and  make  this  visit,  which  had  been 
talked  of  now  for  nearly  thirty  years." 

"  Is  he  especially  interested  in  this  temperance  matter?" 
I  asked.  "Why,  of  course  he  is,"  said  Mrs.  Grattan, 
looking  at  me  with  her  great  wondering  eyes,  as  she  might 
have  looked  had  I  asked  if  John  Fisher  knew  the  names  of 
his  own  children.  "  Live  in  Tamworth  long  enough,  and 
you  will  not  have  to  ask  such  questions  ;  or  go  down  every 
morning  as  he  did  just  now,  to  tell  thirteen  hundred  men 
what  they  are  to  do  before  dinner,  and  you  will  see  why  he 
is  interested." 

"  Yes,"  I  said,  a  little  impatiently  ;  "  but  is  he  interested 
in  it  as  he  is  interested  in  music,  or  as  you  are  interested  in 
novel- writing  ?  " 

"  John  Fisher  interested  in  music?  "  asked  Mrs.  Grattan, 
lifting  her  eye-brows.  And  Mary  Bell  turned  round  on  me 
as  if  I  had  confounded  him  with  some  other  man. 

"  Why  surely,"  I  said,  "  last  night " 

"  Oh,  yes !  last  night,"  said  Mrs.  Grattan,  and  then 
both  the  ladies  laughed.  "  Wait  till  you  see  to-night,  and 
wait  till  you  see  to-morrow  night. 

"  John  Fisher  is  interested  in  music  just  as  he  is  inter 
ested  in  books  and  athletics,  and  pretty  houses  with  clematis 
over  the  window,  and  reading  clubs,  and  pictures,  and  ice- 
chests  in  the  milk  shops,  and  cheap  cottons  and  good  cut 
lery,  and  in  anything  else  that  helps  toward  the  '  good  time 
coming,'  or,  as  he  would  say,  '  to  make  the  Kingdom  01 
God  come.'  But  how  he  would  laugh  if  he  knew  you 
thought  him  an  authority  on  music  because  we  happened  to 
go  to  the  Jubal  together." 


MY   FRIEND   THE    BOSS.  17 

4 :  Well,"  said  Mary  Bell,  "  I  wish  I  had  his  knack,  or 
yoa  may  call  it  his  gift.  I  wish  I  knew  how  to  help  peo 
ple  without  ruining  them  in  the  helping.  Seriously,  we 
might  do  a  worse  thing  than  to  start  him  upon  writing  his 
novel." 

"  Novel !  "  cried  Cordelia  Grattan.  "  The  man's  whole 
life  is  one  romance.  But  it  is  quite  too  varied  to  be  writ 
ten  down.  It  defies  all  the  unities  at  once.  Indeed,  it 
needs  a  steady  hand  like  his  to  keep  those  forty-seven 
prancing  steeds  of  the  Sun  in  any  sort  of  order." 

"  Steeds  of  the  Sun?"  asked  I.  "  And  is  there  no  twi 
light,  no  shadow,  no  darkness  in  his  life?  " 

They  hesitated  for  a  moment,  both.  But  after  a  moment, 
Mrs.  Grattan  said  gravely,  "  I  should  think  there  was  ;  " 
and  at  the  same  instant  Mary  Bell  said,  almost  in  a  whis 
per,  "  You  will  see."  We  were  all  embarrassed,  and  I,  to 
relieve  the  stiffness  and  to  change  the  subject  safely,  asked 
Miss  Bell  if  she  were  any  relation  to  the  Mary  Bell  of  the 
Hollo  Books.  But  at  that  moment,  passing  out  through  a 
chestnut  grove  we  came  in  sight  of  the  chimneys  of  the 
factory,  and  Miss  Bell  pointed  at  them. 

"  I  must  tell  you  that  another  time,"  said  she.  "  Here 
we  are." 


CHAPTER    V. 

"AND  how  have  your  romances  sped?"  This  was 
John  Fisher's  question,  as  soon  as  he  had  gathered 
the  reins  in  his  hands.  "  Did  a  horde  of  red-skins  in  their 
war-paint  rise  shouting  from  a  morass  to  scalp  you  ?  And 
did  Tom  here  empty  two  revolvers  among  their  number, 


18  MY    FRIEND    THE    BOSS. 

not  missing  once  in  his  unerring  aim  ;  and  then  touching 
up  his  gallant  bays,  did  he  rescue  all  from  impending  dan 
ger,  and  receive  in  reward  the  guerdon  of  Miss  Mary's 
hand,  or  Mrs.  Grattan's? 

"  Not  that  I  know  what  a  guerdon  is,"  he  added,  in 
mock  meditative  tone. 

The  ladies  laughed,  and  we  owned  that  we  had  only 
added  descriptive  passages,  heavy  padding,  to  our  stories  ; 
but  Mrs.  Grattan  asked  eagerly  what  was  the  progress  of 
his. 

John  Fisher  took  on  a  more  serious  air,  and  he  said  that 
if  we  did  not  object  to  extending  our  drive  to  the  Look-out 
Station  and  back,  that  would  give  him  fifteen  minutes,  and 
so  he  told  the  story. 

Mrs.  Flaherty  had  come  in.  "  You  know  her,  Cordelia. 
Husband  that  drunken  brute.  This  time  he  had  been  off 
longer  than  usual, — thank  God  for  that!  But  last  night, 
late,  came  a  letter  from  somebody  in  Chicago.  HOAV  those 
people  get  their  letters,  if  indeed  they  ever  do  get  the  right 
ones,  I  never  knew. 

"Anyhow,  here  was  the  letter,  black  and  white;  very 
bad  spelling,  announcing  that  Tim  Flaherty,  who  is  sup 
posed  to  be  her  Tim,  got  into  a  drunken  fight  last  month, 
stabbed  a  policeman  who  died,  and  that  Tim  is  now  in  the 
state  prison  for  fourteen  years.  For  once,  they  seem  to 
have  given  short  shrift  in  Chicago." 

"  That  is  the  best  news  I  have  heard  in  a  month,"  said 
Mary  Bell,  quietly. 

"  I  made  the  same  observation  to  his  wife,"  said  John. 
"  But  I  am  sorry  to  say  it  made  her  cry.  Now,  a  more 
gentle  spirit,  say  Cordelia  here,  would  have  encouraged 


MY   FRIEND   THE   BOSS.  19 

her,  would  have  said  that  there  are  forty-seven  Tim  Flaher 
ty  s  in  the  directory,  and  maybe  it  was  not  he. 

"  I  boldly  said  I  was  sure  it  was  he,  and  that  I  was  very 
glad,  and  so  I  made  her  cry. 

"  But  I  told  her  that  this  was  as  good  as  a  divorce, — 
these  people  call  them  '  disvoces,' — and  better.  I  told  her 
that  now  she  was  in  no  more  danger  of  paying  his  whisky 
bills.  I  asked  her  whether  my  bookkeeper  had  anything  to 
her  credit.  You  see,  Tom,  this  is  the  woman  who  washes 
the  towels,  and  makes  things  tidy  in  the  counting-rooms, 
and  her  fortunes  are  the  common  interest  of  Miss  Bell  and 
me. 

"  They  occupy  me  much  more  than  the  Emperor  of  Rus 
sia's  order  does,"  he  added,  laughing. 

Then,  in  answer  to  Mrs.  G rattan's  eager  and  detailed 
questions,  it  proved  that  the  bookkeeper  had  saved  four  or 
five  weeks  of  her  earnings  from  the  grasp  of  different  bar 
room  princes,  to  whom  Flaherty  had  given  orders  for  her 
money.  There  were  twenty  odd  dollars  to  her  credit. 

"Then  we  sent  to  the  annealing  room  for  Dan.  Dan 
came,  and  he  made  a  fine  appearance,  Mrs.  Grattan.  He 
does  credit  to  your  artistic  eye,  Mary.  I  recognized  your 
taste  in  the  very  color  of  his  overalls.  Dan  reported  that 
his  foreman  had, — oh !  I  think  forty  dollars  to  his  credit. 
Between  them  they  had  held  this  in  face  of  orders  unnum 
bered  signed  by  Tim.  To  tell  the  truth,  I  am  afraid  they 
had  lied  awfully,  in  a  good  cause.  But  the  money  had  not 
been  passed  over. 

"  On  which,  I  bade  Dan  go  and  make  himself  decent, 
and  told  the  foreman  he  must  get  along  without  him  this 
morning.  Then  Dan  went  in  the  glory  of  a  clean  face  and 


20  MY   FRIEND   THE   BOSS. 

of  his  Sunday  hat  to  find  up  Kilmansegg.  Kilmansegg 
was  on  the  top  of  a  load  of  lumber.  But  Dan  hailed  him, 
tendered  his  hundred  dollars,  and  Kilmansegg  said  it  was 
right,  and  that  he  should  have  the  deed  before  night,  and 
he  will." 

Of  this  condensed  narrative  I  asked  the  explanation.  It 
proved  that  Kilmansegg  was  treasurer  of  a  Building  Asso 
ciation.  That  Dan  and  his  mother  had  coveted  a  certain 
five-room  house  which  belonged  to  this  Association.  But 
they  had  not  dared  to  buy  while  Tim  could  pounce  on  their 
wages  at  any  moment. 

Now  that  Tim  was  "jugged,"  in  the  elegant  phrase  of 
his  first-born,  the  mother  and  son  were  able  to  go  into  their 
first  real  estate  speculation. 

' '  You  said  a  hundred  dollars,"  said  Mary  Bell,  breakingher 
part  of  the  silence.  "  But  you  only  accounted  for  sixty  odd." 

John  Fisher  blushed,  as  if  he  had  been  detected  in  a 
crime.  "Oh,  the  foreman  and  I  made  that  all  right.  I 
told  them  they  must  work  and  they  will.  '  Real  Estate ' 
means  a  great  deal,  Tom.  Your  only  way  to  help  people 
is  to  show  them  how  to  help  themselves,  and  the  real, — 
'  royal '  I  suppose  the  word  means,  step  to  helping  them 
selves,  is  over  real  estate.  None  of  your  sham  estates,  as 
Mary  Stevenson  said  of  the  roast  pork.  What  is  your 
story  about  Antams,  Miss  Bell  ?  " 

"  I  did  not  know  it  was  my  story." 

"  Well,  the  explanation  of  it  is,  that  whenever  he  was  in 
the  stock-market  and  the  bears  pulled  him  down,  Antaeus 
fell  back  on  his  real  estate  investments.  He  put  his  foot  on 
the  earth,  and  as  I  heard  the  parson  say  one  day :  '  He 
drank  in  new  strength  from  his  mother.' 


MY    FRIEND   THE    BOSS.  21 

"  Dan  Flaherty  will  never  drink.  Sixty  dollars  a  year 
will  he  save  which  would  else  go  in  whisky.  The  sons 
of  these  drunken  dogs  almost  invariably  hate  IT."  John 
Fisher  always  spoke  of  whisky  as  "  It,"  with  a  certain 
jerk,  which  I  represent  by  a  large  I.  "  They  hate  IT.  It 
is  their  children,  the  boys  and  girls  too,  who  sometimes 
have  the  curse  in  their  blood,  poor  things. 

"  But  now,  Dan  and  his  mother  have  fairly  started  on 
the  ascent  of  the  Great  Temple,  or  Tower,  or  Castle  of 
Human  Life.  It  is  built  on  Real  Estate.  And  when  suc 
cess  is  ended  for  all  four  of  us,  and  we  are  poor  beggars, 
all  of  us  seeking  a  day's  crust,  we  will  hand  in  hand  knock 
at  the  door  of  the  Flaherty  palace,  and  they  shall  take  us 
"in." 

And  so  he  swept  up  to  the  door  of  his  own  palace,  and 
gave  the  reins  to  the  waiting  groom. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

/T"VHE  party  at  lunch  was  as  large  as  that  had  been  at 
supper  the  night  before.  But  I  did  not  recognize  one 
face  of  those  who  met  then,  except  the  children  of  the  house 
and  the  ladies.  There  was  a  certain  informality  about  the 
gathering  as  becomes  a  party  at  lunch  :  a  great  deal  of 
merriment,  as  was  natural  where  most  of  the  guests  were 
young,  and  talk  irrepressible. 

No  !     If  I  had  expected  musical  amateurs  again,  and  I 


22  MY   FRIEKD   THE    BOSS. 

did  not  after  the  ladies'  laughter  in  the  morning,  I  should 
have  been  disappointed.  It  very  soon  appeared  that  the 
party  was  made  up  mostly  from  the  Directors  and  other 
officers  of  the  Base  Ball  Nine  of  Tarn  worth,  who  had  come 
with  their  wives,  and,  in  some  cases,  with  their  daughters, 
and  with  whom  were  other  gentlemen  interested  in  the 
Athletics  of  the  town.  The  Medical  Director  of  the  Gym 
nasium  was  there  ;  the  President  of  the  Cricket  Club  was 
there :  a  white-cravated,  single-breasted  young  man,  who 
proved  to  be  the  minister  of  St.  George's  church.  They 
were  prayer-book  people,  and,  being  Americans,  said  "Min 
ister"  and  did  not  say  "Rector."  The  head  of  the  High  School 
was  there  ;  the  President  of  the  Rowing  Club,  and  in  short 
we  were  a  company  of  very  muscular  Christians,  with  their 
pretty  wives  and  daughters. 

No  !  the  talk  was  not  very  much  of  the  shop.  We  were 
going  in  the  afternoon  to  see  a  practice  game,  as  it  was 
called,  of  the  Tarn  worth  Club,  who  were  to  exhibit  them 
selves  in  full  rig,  to  their  admiring  friends,  after  a  tour 
they  had  made  through  the  principal  towns  in  the  State,  in 
which  they  had  easily  maintained  their  championship  as 
the  best  club  in  the  State,  a  championship  which  they  had 
now  held  for  several  years. 

I  observed  that  we  all  spoke  as  if  it  were  a  matter  of 
course  that  our  club  should  hold  the  championship.  Nor 
was  this  the  last  time  that  I  observed,  that,  whatever  the 
subject  of  conversation,  the  Tamworth  people  all  under 
stood,  that  they  stood,  as  it  were,  of  course,  in  a  well- 
defined  position  of  leadership.  Had  the  Chief  Justice  died 
in  the  night,  I  am  quite  clear  that  the  men  of  Tamworth, 
as  they  met  at  the  post-office  the  next  day,  would  have 


MY   FRIEND   THE    BOSS.  23 

determined  promptly  which  of  the  Tamworth  lawyers  could 
be  best  spared  to  go  to  Washington  and  to  take  his  place. 
[  remembered  that  last  night,  when  I  had  said  that  some 
thing  was  better  played  than  I  had  ever  heard  it,  the  large- 
eyed  woman  to  whom  I  spoke,  had  intimated  that  this  was 
quite  a  matter  of  course.  But  I  had  not  then  understood, 
as  I  came  tojdo,  before  the  week  was  over,  that  this  was 
not  her  notion  only,  but  that  it  was  the  happy  habit  of  all 
the  town. 

So,  all  through  lunch,  it  was  "  conceded"  that  the  jour 
ney  of  the  club  had  been  an  unnecessary  courtesy,  due  in  a 
sort  to  the  other  cities  and  towns  of  the  State.  The  "boys" 
had  of  course  done  well,  and  now  the  afternoon  was  to  be 
made  a  fete  day  in  their  honor. 

As  I  say,  the  talk  was  not  very  largely  on  base  ball. 
But  it  was  very  Aryan.  Or,  not  to  speak  philologically,  it 
was  all  quick  with  ozone,  oxygen  and  the  open  air.  You 
were  ashamed  of  yourself,  if  you  were  not  in  the  habit  of 
walking  fifteen  miles  a  day.  It  was  taken  for  granted  that 
you  knew  the  "  record"  for  bicycles  and  tricycles,  and  that 
for  amateurs  as  distinguished  from  professionals.  You  did 
not  speak  of  a  boat,  but,  in  more  precise  phrase,  of  a  birch, 
or  a  canoe,  a  shell,  or  a  four-oar,  or  a  catamaran,  or  a  cat, 
or  some  one  other  of  forty  different  builds.  It  was  taken  for 
granted  that  life  was  very  well  worth  living,  and  you  would 
have  said  that  not  one  of  these  very  brown  and  very  hand 
some  young  people  had  ever  had  an  ache  or  a  pain. 

I  was  a  little  annoyed  to  find  that  Miss  Bell  was  not  at 
the  table.  "  One  of  her  Bible-class  called  on  her  at  just  the 
wrong  time,"  said  Cordelia  Grattan.  I  had  hoped  that  I 
might  sit  by  her  at  table,  and  that  she  should  be  guide, 


24  MY    FRIEND    THE    BOSS. 

philosopher  and  friend,  to  explain  to  me  the  different  guests, 
and  interpret  to  me  the  local  jokes,  to  which,  inferior,  I 
could  not  mount  alone. 

Instead  of  this,  I  was  introduced  to  a  stranger,  with 
whom  to  begin  all  over  again,  as  I  had  begun  Avith  Mary 
Bell,  the  night  before.  To  borrow  the  simple  phrase  of  the 
Georgia  colonel,  I  was  "  put  out  to  a  strange  gal." 

But  poor  Mary  Bell  was  less  pleasantly  engaged  than  we 
were.  The  Mrs.  Waters  who  had  called  on  her  was  evi 
dently  ill  at  ease  from  the  first.  It  took  her  some  time 
before  she  could  come  to  her  story. 

"  I  am  so  sorry  I  interrupt  you.  I  see  Mrs.  Fisher  has 
company.  Oh,  no  !  I  would  not  think  of  staying.  I  am 
not  dressed,  you  know !  Indeed,  indeed,  Miss  Bell !  I 
would  not  have  waited  for  you,  if — well,  you  will  see,  I  had 
to  wait,  if  it  was  any  good  coming  at  all." 

"  The  dumb  man's  borders  still  increase." 

This  is  a  favorite  quotation  of  Mary  Bell,  and  to  a  con 
siderable  extent,  it  accounts  for  what  people  think  a  certain 
reserve  in  her  manner.  But  as  the  Mrs.  Waters  stam 
mered  and  stopped,  and  blushed,  and  turned  pale,  Mary 
Bell  began  to  think  that  even  this  great  principle  of  life  was 
going  to  fail  her. 

"  You  are  sure  no  one  hears  us?  Did  any  one  mention 
my  name?"  These  ejaculations  followed  from  the  visitor, 
as  for  the  second  time  she  tried  the  door,  and  made  sure 
that  it  was  fast. 

Then  with  a  bold  dash  she  said,  "  Do  you  know  any 
thing  about  Mrs.  Fisher's  necklace,  her  opal  necklace?  Has 
she  said  anything  about  it  to  you? " 

Then  Mary  Bell  remembered  what  she  had  hardly  had  any 


MY    FRIEND   THE    BOSS'.  25 

occasion  to  know,  that  the  husband  of  Mrs.  Waters  was 
the  chief  man  in  the  large  shop  of  Niederkranz  &  Smith, 
the  chief  jewelry  firm  of  Tamworth.  Mr.  Niederkranz  was 
old  and  lame,  and  never  appeared.  Mr.  Smith  was  in  the 
counting-room  or  somewhere,  and  seldom  appeared.  Mr. 
AVaters  was  perhaps  the  "  Co." — anyhow  he  was  the  man 
you  always  saw. 

And  at  last,  with  much  difficulty,  many  surprises,  end 
less  parentheses  and  other  obstructions,  Mrs.  Waters  told 
Miss  Bell  that  nearly  twelve  months  before,  Mrs.  Fisher  had 
brought  to  the  firm  this  necklace,  which  she  did  not  want 
repaired ;  she  did  not  want  to  sell ;  she  wanted  to  pledge 
for  money.  She  wanted  a  large  sum  of  money  for  private 
use ;  some  relatives  she  wanted  to  befriend,  and  it  was  to 
be,  for  the  time,  a  secret  from  her  husband.  She  did  not 
like  to  have  to  ask  him  for  the  money,  she  said.  But  there 
was  this  necklace,  which  had  cost  five  thousand  dollars  at 
Tiffany's.  She  brought  Tiffany's  bill  as  her  evidence. 
AVould  they  lend  her  a  thousand  dollars  for  two  or  three 
months,  and  take  the  necklace  as  security?  Mr.  AVaters 
had  received  this  precious  confidence.  Mr.  AVaters  had 
been  a  good  deal  disgusted,  not  to  say  mortified.  But  he 
had  asked  Mr.  Smith,  who  was  rather  a  cynic,  and  woman- 
hater.  He  had  laughed,  and  had  said  it  was  a  pity  not  to 
accommodate  so  good  a  customer.  Ten  bank  bills,  of  one 
hundred  dollars  each,  had  been  given  to  Mrs.  Fisher,  and 
she  had  the  next  day  sent  down  the  necklace. 

The  queer  part  of  the  story  was  that  nobody  had  looked 
at  it.  The  box  was  marked  with  Tiffany's  name.  Mr. 
Waters  was  busy  and  thought  Mr.  Smith  had  looked  at  it. 
Mr.  Smith  was  cross  and  thought  Mr.  AVaters  had  looked 


26  MY   FRIEND    THE    BOSS. 

at  it.  A  boy  had  been  bidden  to  carry  it  to  the  safe  and 
had  locked  it  up.  At  the  end  of  three  months,  or  there 
abouts,  Mrs.  Fisher  had  been  reminded  of  the  loan,  and 
she  had  said,  "  in  a  few  days."  At  the  end  of  three  months 
more,  she  had  said  "in  a  few  days"  again;  and  so  in 
three  months  more.  There  had  come  a  row.  Old  Mr. 
Niederkranz  had  been  jumbled  down  to  the  store  in  his 
carriage  to  look  at  the  accounts.  He  had  seen  the  entry  of 
one  thousand  dollars  lent  to  Mrs.  Fisher,  in  a  little  pri 
vate  cash-book.  He  had  asked  a  question,  pretty  cross. 
The  pledged  jewel  had  been  sent  for.  The  box  had  been 
opened,  and  lo  !  a  trinket  of  brass  and  copper  and  glass, 
not  even  up  to  Attleborough  standards,  sucli  as  the  grand 
Tiffany  never  dreamed  of,  even  in  a  nightmare  ! 

Of  course  every  one  was  amazed.  Every  one  felt  abused. 
Every  one  threw  the  blame  on  every  one  else.  Mr.  Nieder 
kranz  was  opposed  in  politics  to  Mr.  Fisher.  He  swore  he 
would  expose  him.  Mr.  Smith  was  cross  ;  he  always  was 
cross.  This  time  he  had  been  good-natured,  and  see  what 
had  come  of  it !  Mr.  Waters  was  the  only  person  who 
was  in  the  least  cool.  He  did  not  know  what  was  to  be 
done.  Therefore  he  consulted  his  wife,  having  begged  a 
truce,  or  intermission  of  hostilities  till  afternoon.  Mrs. 
Waters  did  not  know  what  should  be  done,  but  had  ordered 
her  carriage  and  had  come  to  tell  Mary  Bell,  and  leave  the 
responsibility  with  her. 

For  Mary  Bell,  as  I  had  many  occasions  afterwards  to 
learn,  is  one  of  those  persons  on  whom  everybody  throws 
the  responsibility.  It  would  be  one  thing  if  this  were  only 
the  responsibility  of  judging  what  other  people  should  do, 
as  for  instance  the  Pope  does.  But  in  Mary  Bell's  case, 


*    MY   FRIEND    THE    BOSS.  27 

and  in  other  like  cases,  I  have  observed  that  certain  people 
not  only  have  to  decide  as  to  duty,  but  have  to  bell  the  cat. 
"  I  told  Mary  Bell,"  people  say,  and  then  they  fancy  that 
they  have  nothing  more  to  do  in  the  premises.  She  will 
take  the  whole  affair  off  their  hands,  not  that  she  wants  to, 
poor  woman.  "  But  then,  you  will  do  it  so  much  better 
than  I,  Miss  Bell."  As  probably  she  will. 

Such  was  Mary  Bell's  occupation  while  the  rest  of  us 
were  at  lunch  before  the  athletic  exhibition,  or  reception  of 
our  nine.  She  was  hearing,  weighing,  and  learning  to 
understand  Mrs.  Waters's  incredible  story. 


CHAPTER   VII. 

]VTO  !  I  will  not  be  tempted  by  any  artistic  considerations 
to  switch  off  from  the  proper  track  of  this  story,  too  much 
crowded  at  the  best,  to  tell  the  fortunes  of  that  afternoon's 
game  of  base  ball.  How  Fremantle  covered  himself  with 
glory  by  very  prettily  stealing  secoiid,  or  how  Dawes  dis 
gusted  every  one  by  curious  lack  of  judgment  in  throwing  to 
bases,  but  subsequently  made  up  a  little  by  striking  out 
seven  men  consecutively.  All  this  has  its  place  in  litera 
ture,  as  Dr.  Everett  and  a  certain  unknown  author  in  the 
No  Name  series  have  shown.  There  will  yet  be  published  a 
novel  in  which  every  one's  destiny  will  turn  on  the  question 
Avhether,  as  the  Hector  of  the  story  springs  from  the  ground, 
stretching  his  arm  above  him,  his  fingers  close  tightly  on 
the  ball,  or  whether  the  ball  strikes  the  third  phalangette, 
breaks  it  backward  and  disables  him  for  life.  On  this  shall 


28  MY    FRIEND    THE    BOSS. 

hinge  the  fortunes  of  the  blonde  heroine  and  the  brunette 
heroine  ;  of  the  cynical  hero  and  the  good-natured  hero  ;  of 
the  pan  of  millions  and  the  beggar  in  the  gutter.  But  this 
story  is  not  that  novel,  and  I  sadly  pass  by  the  fascinating 
episode. 

The  reader  will  lay  down  the  book,  and  recall  the  last 
game  he  say  played  on  the  Diamond  Field  ;  will  imagine 
that  the  party  from  Mr.  Fisher's  is  sitting,  watching  the 
players,  in  three  or  four  open  carriages ;  will  observe  that 
John  Fisher  is  not  there,  but  that  Mrs.  Fisher  is ;  rather 
noisy,  rather  simple  in  her  observations,  and  always  foolish, 
and  then  the  reader  will  return  from  the  ball-ground  to  the 
house. 

And  here  was  to  be  a  party  in-doors  and  out-doors,  for 
all  the  players,  for  all  the  substitutes,  for  the  amateur  clubs 
and  all  their  friends.  The  party  was  to  be  in-doors  if  it 
rained  ;  out-doors  if  it  were  not  too  cold.  And,  as  it  prov 
ed,  it  was  one  of  the  last  straggling  days  of  Indian  summer, 
and  on  the  exquisite  lawn  were  scattered  groups  of  pretty 
girls  who  had  not  yet  lost  the  brown  of  their  summer  cam 
paign,  and  of  eager  boys  who  were  browner  than  the  dames 
they  admired.  A  band  of  music  was  on  the  west  terrace, 
and  just  before  the  sun  went  down,  in  answer  to  a  sugges 
tion  of  Cordelia  Grattan's,  the  dignity  of  the  great  leader 
of  the  music  so  far  unbent  that  he  consented  to  play  a  waltz  ; 
nay,  many  waltzes.  The  hint  was  readily  taken,  and  boys 
and  girls,  young  men  and  maidens  ;  nay,  gentlemen  of  nine- 
aud-fifty  and  women  of  an  uncertain  age,  were  flying  round 
and  round  on  that  almost  matchless  lawn,  "  accoutred  as 
they  were,"  and  enjoying  the  dance  all  the  more  because 
they  danced  in  boots  and  hats  and  bonnets. 


MY   FRIEND    THE    BOSS.  29 

For  myself,  I  had  determined,  as  I  dressed  for  the  party, 
that  I  would  devote  myself  to  our  hostess,  and  find  out,  if  I 
could,  why  thus  far  I  knew  so  little  of  her.  I  saw  her 
talking  with  a  young  man,  who  seemed  ill  at  ease,  and  I 
drew  up  to  them,  thinking  that  he  might  wish  to  be  relieved, 
and  she  he  equally  grateful  if  I  relieved  him. 

I  wns  at  least  half  right.     As  for  the  rest,  I  do  not  know. 

"  I  think  not,"  he  said,  as  I  drew  near.  Either  he  was 
of  a  very  florid  complexion  or  he  was  blushing  vehemently. 

"  Oh  !  yes  it  is, — I  know  it  is,"  cried  Mrs.  Fisher,  and 
she  giggled  vehemently.  "  I  tell  all  the  young  men  so." 

"  What  do  you  tell  them?  "  asked  I.  I  never  knew  any 
one  who  did  not  class  himself  among  the  young  men.  Cer 
tainly  I  am  one  of  them.  Dr.  Jackson  says  the  prime  of 
life  lasts  till  we  are  sixty-five. 

' '  I  tell  Mr.  Rose  he  should  have  his  eye-glass  set  with 
diamonds.  They  have  such  pretty  ones  at  Bookwalter's." 

"And  I  tell  Mrs.  Fisher,"  said  young  Rose,  "that  she 
must  have  our  salaries  raised  at  the  Board  of  Works." 
And  then,  quite  as  much  relieved  as  I  had  fancied  he  would 
be,  he  touched  his  hat,  and  walked  away.  But  it  was  pret 
ty  clear  to  me  that  he  had  been  a  little  wounded  by  his 
hostess. 

I  asked  where  her  husband  was.  "  He  affects  to  be 
at  leisure  all  the  afternoon,"  said  I.  "Can  he  not  come 
and  help  in  the  dancing?  " 

"  Don't  ask  me  about  Mr.  Fisher.  He  goes  his  way, 
and  I  go  mine.  I  tell  him  if  he  will  not  bother  me  about 
his  old  machinery,  and  his  letters  from  Europe,  and  the  price 
of  iron,  I  will  not  bother  him  when  I  give  a  party." 

Of  which  ready  retort,  the  specially  interesting  feature  was 


30  MY   FRIEND   THE    BOSS. 

that  it  was  wholly  untrue.  Not  only  had  Mrs.  Fisher  nev-  * 
er  made  any  such  remark,  which  had  in  fact  flashed  on  her 
at  the  moment,  but  every  arrangement  for  this  party  had 
been  made  by  John  Fisher  himself.  The  band  had  been 
ordered ;  the  collation  had  been  provided ;  the  invitations 
had  been  written  and  sent,  all  as  one  little  detail  in  the  busi 
ness  of  this  particular  day.  And,  because  he  was  a  great 
man  of  business,  the  very  smallest  of  them  and  the  largest 
had  all  been  attended  to  ten  days  before. 

"  He  likes  young  people,  does  he  not?"  This  was  my 
next  attempt. 

"  Oh,  yes  !  I  suppose  he  does.  I  am  sure  he  is  always 
filling  up  the  house  with  them.  It  is  a  party  to-day,  and  a 
reception  to-morrow,  and  an  afternoon  tea  next  day.  I  say 
to  them  that  I  might  just  as  well  be  keeping  a  hotel.  Bet 
ter,  indeed,  for  there's  Jane  Mulhouse, — she  does  keep  a 
hotel,  or  her  husband  does.  And  she  lives  in  just  the 
sweetest,  dearest  little  house,  on  a  side  street  in  Chicago, 
with  her  books  and  her  birds  and  her  music,  and  you  would 
not  know  there  was  a  hotel  within  a  thousand  miles  of  her. 
That's  the  way  I  wish  I  could  live."  And  she  rolled  her 
eyes  over  her  fan  at  me,  with  a  sentimental  look  which  gave 
me  courage.  For  I  saw  that  even  I  was  worth  flirting 
with.  I  persevered. 

"  I  was  sorry  you  could  not  go  on  our  drive  with  us  to 
day.  Mrs.  Grattan  said  you  were  not  well." 

"Oh,  yes  !  I  had  one  of  my  headaches.  I  -am  not  fit  to 
be  here  now.  But  it  is  one  of  the  things, — well,  I  suppose 
you  orators  would  say, — it  is  one  of  the  things  which  one 
owes  to  society.  That  means,  Mr.  Mellen,"  she  said  in  an 
affected  sadness,  "  that  means  that  my  husband  chooses  to 


MY   FRIEND    THE    BOSS.  31 

give  a  great  party,  and  tells  his  people  to  invite  Tom,  Dick, 
and  Harry,  whom  I  never  saw  nor  heard  of,  and  then  wants 
me  to  come  and  be  gracious  to  them  all,  and  make  it  pass 
off  well.  Well,  I  do  as  I  am  bidden.  That  is  poor 
woman's  place,  I  suppose.  What  is  a  headache  to  compare 
with  the  good  of  society  ?  "  And  she  sighed  profoundly. 

I  saw  that  I  had  made  a  mistake,  and  I  stumbled  out  of 
it  as  well  as  I  could.  "  You  spoke  of  your  friend's  quiet 
life  with  her  books.  I  suppose  I  may  credit  you  for  those 
charming  editions  I  saw  in  the  breakfast-room." 

I  took  her  off  her  guard  here.  For  the  moment  she  hesi 
tated,  doubting  whether  she  would  say  she  had  selected  them 
or  not.  But  the  instinct  for  contradiction  prevailed,  as  it 
almost  always  does  with  silly  women,  badly  bred  or  not 
bred  at  all.  They  seem  to  think  that  there  is  wit,  or  at  least 
brilliancy,  in  opposing  every  proposition  brought  forward. 

"Books?  Oh!  breakfast-room?  Oh,  yes!  I  know  what 
you  mean.  Oh,  no  !  Don't  charge  me  with  filling  the 
whole  house  up  with  books.  I  may  do  very  silly  things.  I 
believe  people  think  I  do.  But  the  book  folly  was  never 
one  of  mine.  I  tell  them  that  I  have  my  Bible,  and  my 
cook-books,  and  that  if  they  want  to  talk  about  French 
novels,  or  German  philosophers,  they  must  go  to  some  one 
else.  Books,  indeed  !  I  pity  the  maids  who  have  to  dust 
them,  and  for  all  me  they  might  be  carved  out  of  oak,  as 
some  books  were  which  I  saw  somewhere." 

"  That  does  very  well  for  you  to  say,"  I  said,  persever 
ing,  as  one  sometimes  does,  because  the  exigencies  of  social 
life  seem  to  require  it.  "  For  all  that,  I  should  like  to 
have  a  peep  at  the  table  in  your  own  sitting-room  and  see 
who  your  favorite  authors  are." 


32  MY    FRIEND    THE    BOSS. 

"  No,  you  would  not,  Mr.  Mellen.  You  would  find  my 
favorite  authors  are  people  you  turned  up  your  nose  at.  I 
am  not  one  of  the  people  who  run  with  the  crowd.  My 
husband  made  me  go  to  the  theatre  to  see  the  Lady  of  Lyons. 
'  Why  should  I  see  the  Lady  of  Lyons  ?  '  I  said.  Then  the 
next  night  they  had  something  of  Shakspere's.  I  would  not 
go  ;  just  to  show  my  independence  I  would  not  go.  I  hate 
Shakspere,  and  I  said  I  did.  Then  the  man  acted  some 
thing  else,  Claude  Melnotte,  was  it  not?  and  I  went  to  that 
just  because  the  others  would  not.  No,  you  would  not 
want  to  see  my  favorite  authors." 

I  said  I  had  been  turning  over  the  music  in  the  music 
racks,  and  I  saw  that  she  had  some  of  my  special  favorites 
there. 

' '  Music  !  I  fond  of  music  ?  Did  you  really  think 
because  my  poor  husband  chose  to  fill  the  house  with  those 
people,  squalling  and  howling  last  night,  that  I  cared  for 
music?  In  the  first  place,  I  cannot  sing  a  note.  And,  in 
the  second  place,  I  never  had  any  patience  to  practice  when 
I  was  a  girl.  And  in  the  third  place  I  have  no  ear.  Oh, 
dear !  Mr.  Mellen,  the  money  that  is  spent  in  this  city  on 
singers  and  players,  operas  and  concerts,  terrifies  me.  If  I 
had  my  way,  there  should  not  be  a  Jews-harp  in  the  town." 

I  was  beginning  to  wonder  what  was  the  charm  of  that 
Chicago  lady's  house,  seeing  books  and  music,  on  which  I 
had  ventured  first,  were  so  worthless.  I  believe  I  should 
have  asked  if  Mr.  Fisher  were  fond  of  birds,  but  another 
lady  drew  near,  paid  her  respects,  and  the  two  fell  into  talk 
together,  in  which  I  was  an  unwilling  third.  But  I  had 
not,  or  thought  I  had  not,  a  chance  to  leave. 

"  So  glad  to  see  you,  Mrs.  Vanderweyer." 


MY    FRIEND    THE    BOSS.  33 

"  So  glad  to  see  you,  dear  Mrs.  Fisher.  What  a  perfect 
day  you  have,  and  what  a  lovely  party." 

"  It  is  pretty  to  see  the  young  people,  is  it  not?  I  was 
saying  to  Mr.  Mellen, — let  me  introduce  Mr.  Mellen, — that 
there  is  nothing  I  so  delight  in  as  seeing  young  people 
happy.  I  hope  dear  Clara  is  here." 

No  ;  Clara  was  out  of  town.  She  had  gone  over  to  the 
college  at  New  Padua,  and  there  was  an  exhibition  that 
day,  and  Clara  had  stayed  to  hear  Dr.  F"arrar  read 
Browning. 

"  Dr.  Farrar  read  Browning  !  "  cried  Mrs.  Fisher.  "  Do 
you  tell  me  that  to-day  is  the  day  for  Browning?  Why,  I 
sent  over  for  the  tickets  a  week  ago,  and  they  lie  on  my  table 
now.  I  so  dote  on  Browning.  I  was  saying  to  Mr.  Mel 
len  that  if  I  could  not  call  Browning  my  own  poet,  and 
Christina  llossctti,  too,  you  know,  I  did  not  think  life 
would  be  worth  living." 

Mrs.  Vanderweyer  had  undoubtedly  heard  enough  of  such 
protestations  before.  She  broke  in  a  little  unceremoniously 
to  ask  where  Mr.  Fisher  was. 

"  Don't  ask  me  about  John  Fisher.  I  am  the  last  per 
son  in  Tamworth  to  ask  about  him.  I  tell  them  that  every 
body  else  is  privileged  to  know  about  him,  except  poor  I. 
No  !  this  is  just  the  way.  He  comes  to  me  and  says,  '  It  is 
time  for  a  party  to  the  people  of  the  town.'  And  I  say  I 
think  it  will  be  a  pretty  time  for  a  lawn  party.  Then  I 
order  the  music,  and  send  out  my. notes,  and  put  on  my  best 
gown,  and  come  and  have  the  party,  and  John  Fisher  has 
forgotten  all*about  it.  He  is  down  at  the  foundry  with  a 
new  steam  gauge,  or  lie  is  in  the  Club  talking  politics,  and 
I  have  the  party  to  entertain.  I  say  to  them  that  at  the 


34  MY   FRIEND   THE    BOSS. 

end  of  the  year  he  does  not  know  his  neighbors  by  sight,  he 
is  so  unsociable." 

And  so  on,  and  so  on. 

And  in  truth,  all  this  afternoon  John  Fisher  was  sadly 
and  wearily  rushing  from  one  office  to  another  and  one 
house  to  another,  to  hear  more  and  more  details  of  her  utter 
folly  and  absurdity,  in  her  fraud  with  the  necklace,  and  was 
trying  to  save  her  from  the  public  disgrace  which  at  twelve 
o'clock  that  day  had  seemed  inevitable. 

For  Mary  Bell,  unwillingly  enough,  had  gone  to  him  to 
tell  him  the  whole  story.  It  was  certainly  the  best  thing 
which  she  could  do. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

/^\F  all  this  misery  about  the  necklace,  I  knew  nothing 

all  that  afternoon,  nor,  indeed,  for  some  days  after. 
The  day  was  only  too  short  for  the  dancers.  But  the 
evening  chill  would  come  on^  and  unwillingly  enough  they 
retreated  to  the  house.  There  a  few  enthusiastic  couples 
still  kept  up  their  waltzing,  with  a  band  not  at  all  unwilling. 
To  my  great  pleasure  Mary  Bell  appeared.  I  felt  more  at 
ease  with  her  than  I  did  with  any  one  but  our  host.  I  saw 
this  afternoon  that  she  was  a  little  ill  at  ease.  But  when  I 
asked  after  him,  she  simply  said  that  his  time  was  never 
his  own,  and  that  she  supposed  some  one  had  called  him 
away. 


MY   FRIEND   THE    BOSS.  35 

Just  as  the  last  dancers  disappeared  he  came  in.  If  he 
were  annoyed  or  careworn,  I  did  not  then  notice  it,  nor 
learn  that  he  was  tired.  The  very  moment  when  the  last 
guest  vanished,  "tea"  was  announced.  It  proved  to  be 
that  composite  meal  which  old  housekeepers  call  a  "  high 
tea,"  wThere,  on  one  hospitable  board,  appear  provisions 
which  would  answer  for  breakfast,  lunch,  dinner,  tea  or 
supper,  or  for  all  of  these  piled  together.  The  children 
were  here  and  their  father  let  them  have  their  way  ;  he  drew 
them  out,  indeed.  Perhaps  he  did  not  want  to  show  that  he 
himself  had  something  other  than  hospitality  to  think  of. 
At  all  events  he  did  not  show  it  then. 

We  really  lounged  at  table,  listening  to  the  boys' 
accounts  of  Fremantle's  prowess,  and  to  criticisms  of 
Dawes's  wretched  failure,  till  a  servant  announced  that  two 
gentlemen  were  waiting  for  Mr.  Fisher  in  the  library.  He 
turned  to  me  and  asked  if  I  would  join  them.  "  They  are 
both  intelligent  men,"  he  said,  "  and  there  will  be  a  dozen 
others  like  them.  Come  if  you  want  to  talk  politics.  If 
you  do  not,  Mrs.  Fisher  and  Mrs.  Grattan  will  give  you 
some  music.  To  tell  you  the  truth,  this  is  our  last  chance 
for  a  final  discussion  before  our  great  battle  of  Tuesday. 
You  have  not  heard,  perhaps,  that  Tuesday  week  is  the 
critical  day  of  all  history, — that  Waterloo  and  Pharsalia 
only  led  up  to  it." 

I  said  I  had  heard  that  they  had  their  city  election  on 
that  Tuesday,  in  fact  I  supposed  my  Temperance  speech  had 
something  to  do  Avith  it,  and  that  I  should  be  very  glad  to 
be  admitted  behind  the  scenes. 

"  As  for  that,"  said  John  Fisher  as  we  left  the  room, 
"  there  is  very  little  scenery  ;  and  very  little  costume,  but 


36  MY   FRIEND    THE    BOSS. 

what  we  wear  in  the  shops.  The  English  of  it  is,  as  in  all 
large  towns  of  which  I  know  anything,  that  the  liquor  deal 
ers,  large  and  small,  are  of  course  a  unit  in  all  politics. 
Their  business  compels  them  to  be  a  unit.  It  is  just  as 
slavery  made  the  fifty  thousand  slaveholders  into  one  great 
corporation,  and  they  needed  no  charter  to  incorporate  them. 
Of  course,  also,  this  liquor-dealing  unit  controls  a  great 
many  votes  of  men  who  drink  daily.  Every  chalk-score 
gives  a  lien  on  some  one  voter,  and  any  candidate,  who 
will  wipe  out  that  score,  may  have  that  man's  vote,  without 
many  questions.  Of  course  this  combination,  this  unit,  votes 
together.  It  votes  for  the  same  President,  for  the  same 
Governor,  for  the  same  Sheriff,  for  the  same  Aldermen. 
There  is  not  a  large  town  in  America  where  this  Unit  does 
not  exist.  It  makes  in  each  town  a  political  club,  of  people 
who  never  saw  or  heard  of  each  other.  This  club  votes,  as  it 
has  a  right  to,  as  one. 

"What  is  there  on  the  other  side?"  he  went  on,  after  he 
had  presented  me  to  Lauderdale  and  Jackson,  who  were 
waiting  for  us  in  the  library.  "On  the  other  side  are  all 
sorts  of  opinions.  There  are  the  politicians,  who  are  inter 
ested  in  National  parties.  They  detest  local  politics,  bc-cause 
they  introduce  so  much  confusion  in  calculations.  Then 
there  are  the  Temperance  people.  They  are  apt  to  be  quar 
relling  with  each  other's  panaceas.  There  are  a  handful  of 
people,  one  in  fifty,  Avho  care  about  the  schools.  There  are 
a  few  lawyers  with  theories  about  government,  and  a  few 
persons  with  other  theories.  There  are  some  ambitious  young 
men  who  wish  the  city  were  better  governed ;  who  liate 
rings,  and  will  do  anything,  so  they  are  o:ily  sure  nobody  else 
wants  them  to  do  it.  All  this  breaks  up  the  opposition  to 


MY   FRIEND   THE    BOSS.  37 

the  Unit.  It  breaks  it  up  so  badly  in  some  places,  that  the 
decent  people,  who  would  be  glad  to  see  a  decent  government, 
lose  all  heart. 

They  tell  me  that  in  Boston,  where  I  think  your  father  came 
from,  they  cannot  get  fifty  voters  in  a  hundred  to  the  polls 
at  their  city  elections.  They  tell  me  that  the  Unit  governs 
them,  while  it  has  not  a  quarter  part  of  the  voters." 

"But  we  do  not  do  things  in  that  way  here,"  said  Mr. 
Lauderdale,  a  fat,  bustling,  jolly  man,  who  stood,  with  his 
back  to  the  fire,  rubbing  his  hands  with  glee. 

"Not  much,"  said  Mr.  Jackson,  a  tall,  thin,  pale  man, 
more  taciturn,  to  whom  he  appealed. 

John  Fisher  introduced  me  to  these  two  gentlemen,  and  I 
found  they  knew  my  name.  Lauderdale  began  at  once  to 
give  me  points  which  he  wished  I  would  make  in  the  ad 
dress  I  had  come  to  deliver  ;  and  Jackson,  in  his  short-metre 
way,  made  his  suggestions  and  confirmed  his  friend's.  One 
and  another  gentleman  came  in,  and  to  each  I  was  present 
ed.  Some  of  them  fell  into  our  group,  which  was  discuss 
ing  Temperance  specially,  the  others  fell  into  groups  of  their 
own,  all  standing,  until  the  entry  of  two  gentlemen  made 
our  number  fourteen  complete,  and  then  without  even  a 
word  from  our  host  every  man  looked  for  a  chair,  turned 
it  round  and  seated  himself,  so  that  we  all  sat  in  a  rude 
horseshoe  order,  with  John  Fisher  in  the  middle,  at  his 
writing  table. 

"I  am  glad  to  see  you  all,"  he  said,  very  quietly.  "I 
hope  all  the  news  is  as  good  as  Weemyss  brings  us."  And  he 
looked  inquiringly  at  the  left  end  of  the  horseshoe,  and 
nodded  to  the  gentleman  who  sat  there,  who  was,  as  it  hap 
pened,  one  of  the  last  comers. 


38  MY   FRIEND    THE    BOSS. 

"I  am  very  sorry  to  say  our  news  is  very  bad,"  replied 
he  ;  "it  is  as  bad  as  it  can  be.  In  fact  Ward  7  has  gone  all  to 
pieces,  and  'all  the  Kings  oxen'  cannot  set  it  up  again.  If 
the  rest  of  you  have  as  bad  news  as  I,  we  may  as  well  all 
go  a- fishing  to-morrow  morning." 

There  was  something  amusing  in  the  lugubrious  tone  of 
this  Mr.  Harkness.  But  he  was  evidently  badly  in  earnest. 
It  was  clear  enough  that  he  would  not  have  made  any  such 
confession  outside  these  sacred  walls.  What  he  was  telling, 
also,  was  news  which  the  public  would  not  know  till  the 
next  morning  ;  might  not  know  for  many  days.  But  there 
"was  no  doubt  it  was  true.  It  amounted  to  this,  that  in  the 
Seventh  Ward,  which  was  the  very  palladium  of  the  vote  of 
the  good  sense  and  integrity  of  Tamworth,  on  which  the 
leaders  in  this  coterie  always  relied  for  a  square  thousand 
majority  over  "It,"  with  which  to  to  start  all  their  calcula 
tions,  in  this  redoubtable  Seventh  Ward,  certain  old-time 
jealousies  had  become  uncontrollable.  The  Blues  and  the 
Greens,  in  the  house  of  our  friends,  were  in  raging  quarrel 
with  each  other.  Swinton  had  declared  that  he  would  be 
alderman  this  year,  if  every  other  district  in  Tamworth 
chose  the  Devil  and  his  saints  to  be  aldermen.  Swinton 
would  not  be  "sat  upon"  and  despised  any  longer.  He  had 
led  the  ward,  in  good  times  and  bad  times,  and  he  would  not 
be  snubbed  as  he  had  been  at  the  caucus  which  chose  dele 
gates  to  the  State  convention.  Ever  since  that  time  had 
this  fire  been  smouldering  in  Michael  Swinton's  mind.  And 
now  it  burst  out,  and  there  was  not  a  man  in  all  the  shops 
but  thought  Swinton  had  the  right  of  it,  and  deserved 
justice. 

But,  as  everybody  who  sat  around  John   Fisher's    table 


MY    FRIEND    THE    BOSS.  39 

knew,  that  is,  every  one  excepting  me,  Michael  Swinton 
could  no  more  be  chosen  the  alderman  of  Ward  7,  than 
Benedict  Arnold  could.  Harkness  was  dramatic  and  very 
amusing,  as  he  described  the  horror  of  the  people  on  the 
Hill  at  any  such  suggestion.  The  people  on  the  Hill  were 
going  to  the  caucus  this  very  night,  in  forces  such  as  the 
Hill  had  never  sent  to  any  caucus  since  caucuses  were  heard  of. 
To  tell  the  truth,  the  people  on  the  Hill  generally  let  caucus 
es  alone.  They  generally  voted  for  the  ticket  which  was 
suggested, — well,  in  the  room  we  were  sitting  in,  or  which 
was  approved  there.  But  there  came  occasions  when  the 
people  on  the  Hill  forgot  their  cosmogonies  and  their  cor 
relations,  turned  a  cruel  back  on  their  own  whist  parties, 
left  the  discussion  of  Protoplasm  and  of  Evolution  ;  the  last 
novel  was  on  the  shelf,  and  the  last  Fortnightly  was  uncut, 
while  Mr.  Molineux  bade  Dennis  drive  him  down  to  the 
ward  meeting,  that  he  might  take  part  in  the  government  of 
the  country.  This  was  one  of  these  gilded  occasions. 
There  would  be  quiet  to-night  in  the  philosophical  and  fash 
ionable  circles  on  the  Hill,  while  the  Molineux  people  and 
the  Gnlls  and  the  Fitz-Altamonts  and  the  Sweenys  all  rode 
down  to  the  caucus,  to  vote  as  Henry  Gull,  who  managed 
the  politics  of  the  Hill,  should  direct  them. 

"And  who  are  the  Hill  people  going  to  send  to  the  Board 
of  Aldermen?"  asked  John  Fisher,  laughing  at  Harkness's 
lugubrious  caricatures. 

"Oh,  they  have  got  a  fossil.  Even  you  never  heard  of 
him,  Mr.  Fisher.  They  dug  him  up  out  of  the  graveyard. 
They  have  persuaded  old  Col.  Stothers  to  run,  and  old  Col. 
Stothers  says,  that,  'if  a  little  of  the  sineAvs  of  war  should 
prove  necessary,  he  will  venture  to  intimate  that  the  fount- 


40  MY   FRIEND    THE   BOSS. 

ain  of  the  sinews  will  not  soon  run  dry.'  Old  Col.  Stothers 
is  to  take  the  stump  against  Michael  Swinton  !  The  cau 
cus  to-night  will  break  up  in  a  row.  Swinton's  people  will 
adjourn  to  the  Methodist  vestry  opposite,  and  you  will  have 
two  tickets,  and  then  Master  Dick  Mallory,  the  most  popu 
lar  and  the  most  unreliable  little  son  of  perdition  that  ever 
lied  to  a  woman  or  cheated  a  man,  will  slip  into  your  City 
Council,  over  the  head  of  both  your  candidates,  and  the 
good  God  only  knows  what  mischief  he  will  do  when  he 
gets  there !" 

This  was  poor  Horace  Harkness's  peroration.  He  had 
occupied  more  time  than  his  share  in  telling  his  story,  and 
he  knew  he  had.  But  all  men  knew  the  importance  of  it. 
Ilarkness  had  been  spending  all  that  day,  all  of  many  days, 
on  this  business.  There  was  no  one  "of  any  account"  in 
the  Ward  whom  he  had  not  seen  about  it.  He  had  even 
talked  suavely  and  with  dignity  with  Col.  Stothers.  "I  tell 
you"  said  Harkncss,  "I  put  on  my  dogskin  gloves,  I  took  a 
Malacca  joint.  I  had  Withers  send  a  coupe  to  carry  me, 
and  we  put  Bob  Sykes  into  livery  for  the  occasion."  But 
the  Colonel's  heart  had  not  melted.  Harkness  seemed  to 
have  done  all  that  a  prudent  and  conciliatory  counsellor  could 
do.  But  the  English  of  it  all  was  that  the  Ward  was 
fatally  divided,  and  that  at  the  very  outset  we  had  lost 
our  best  advantage.  Worst  of  all,  as  it  always  is,  we 
were  sorest  wounded  in  the  house  of  our  friends. 

In  such  fashion  we  rapidly  went  round  the  semi-circle, 
and  in  longer  or  shorter  reports  obtained  an  interior  view  of 
the  prospects  of  the  great  election  from  each  of  the  twelve 
wards.  There  was  never  the  slightest  self-deception  among 
these  men.  They  spoke  as  clearly  and  calmly  of  defection  or 


MY   FRIEND    THE   BOSS.  41 

of  accession  to  the  forces  of  order,  as  a  physician  in  consul 
tation  might  speak  of  the  temperature  revealed  by  his  ther 
mometer,  or  the  rapidity  of  the  pulse  as  he  had  counted  it. 
However  pitilessly  they  might  one  day  choose  to  brag  before 
the  public,  there  was  no  such  bragging  here.  Some  of  the 
reports  were  encouraging ;  some  seemed  fatal.  It  was 
taken  for  granted  that  unless  "  We"  carried  eight  wards 
handsomely,  "/£"  scored  a  substantial  victory.  No  one 
spoke  of  the  parties  in  contest  by  any  political  or  local  names. 
It  was  "  We"  or  "They,"  or,  as  I  have  written,  "  We"  or 
11  It."  They  all  understood  entirely  that  their  enemy  moved 
as  one  man,  and  their  whole  object  was  to  secure  a  con 
centration  which  might,  in  the  least  degree,  rival  a  union 
so  certain  and  so  formidable. 

How  far  they  would  succeed  in  this,  I  was  by  no  means 
certain.  "Where  bad  men  conspire,  good  men  must  com 
bine,"  Mr.  Burke  says,  but  he  does  not  say,  anywhere,  how 
they  are  to  do  it.  Cousin  says,  on  the  other  hand,  that  low 
down  in  the  quality  of  evil  is  its  powerlessness,  its  incapacity 
to  reproduce  itself.  This  also  is  true. 

But  we  were  not  worried  about  the  evil  of  ten  years  to 
come.  It  was  the  evil  of  that  autumn  that  we  were  in  bat 
tle  with.  And  that  living  Evil  had  power  enough  to  do  a 
great  deal  of  harm  in  Tamworth,  if  it  were  permitted  to 
take  possession  of  the  government  now.  How  were  you  go 
ing  to  combine  ?  You  had  twenty  different  corps  and  as 
many  as  five  hundred  corps  commanders,  and  each  corps 
commander  had  a  special  evil  he  wanted  to  crush  and  a 
special  policy  he  wanted  to  carry  out. 

Indeed,  I  was  reminded  of  Spain,  where,  with  sixteen  mil 
lion  people,  they  have  sixteen  million  and  one  political  parties. 


42  MY    FRIEND    THE    BOSS. 

But  in  John  Fisher's  library  there  was  harmony,  if  only 
from  that  library  it  might  take  possession  of  the  city,  and 
the  real  leaders  of  the  city. 

Everybody  knew  that  there  were  leaders  ;  nobody  com 
plained  of  this.  The  opinions  of  the  leaders  had  been 
obtained.  Indeed,  you  might  say  that  this  meeting  was 
meant  chiefly  for  a  report  of  what  the  leaders  of  the  different 
shops,  clubs,  reading-rooms,  unions,  associations,  corpora 
tions  and  companies,  thought  best  and  could  stand  by. 

What  they  thought  BEST,  that  was  really  the  object  which 
these  twelve  gentlemen  who  were  "  combining  "  with  John 
Fisher  believed  was  attainable,  and  indeed  they  thought  it 
was  the  only  thing  worth  fighting  for.  I  was  fairly  awed 
sometimes  by  the  cool  puritanism  with  which  some  John 
Brown  would  make  a  report  as  to  the  tone  of  feeling  of  a 
knot  of  boys,  hardly  yet  men,  in  a  skating-rink  which  he 
seemed  to  be  interested  in.  I  was  tempted  to  ask  him  if 
they  did  not  open  the  rink  with  prayer.  I  am  sure  they 
might  have  done  so,  as  he  described  the  young  fellows  there, 
and  have  done  it  reverently. 

When  I  did  speak  to  him,  he  said,  with  a  smile  like  Crom 
well's,  "  We  do  not  mean  to  let  the  Devil  have  all  the  fun." 

The  reports  from  the  twelve  wards  were  all  made.  John 
Fisher  "  resumed  "  the  position  with  wonderful  clearness, 
and  threw  light  on  it,  with  a  way  to  give  every  one 
courage.  He  then  made  two  or  three  practical  suggestions 
which  led  to  discussion,  and  asked  some  questions  which 
called  forth  answers.  Of  the  result  of  the  discussions  this 
story  will  tell.  I  will  not  try  to  make  the  reader  under 
stand  the  detail. 


MY    FRIEND    THE    BOSS.  43 

Everything  had  to  be  considered.  The  people  of  the 
Causeway,  justly  irritated  about  the  vote  on  their  school- 
houses  ;  the  whole  interest  of  the  Wire  men,  who  had  lost 
their  water  power  when  the  canal  was  closed  by  the  State, 
and  had  never  had  justice  done  them  ;  the  evident  unpopu 
larity  of  the  commission  which  was  cutting  down  all  the 
trees  in  the  streets  and  substituting  jonquils,  with  the  best 
possible  motives,  but  in  face  of  public  opinion  ;  the  demands 
of  the  cabmen  ;  the  rights  of  the  street  railways  ;  the  need 
of  the  athletic  clubs,  who  wanted  new  privileges  in  the  park  ; 
the  failure  of  skating,  now  for  two  years, — all  these  interests 
and  a  hundred  more,  I  suppose,  Avere  to  be  considered  and 
conciliated.  And  IT  was  not  to  be  permitted  to  handle  one 
of  them.  Every  one  knew  how  IT  manages  such  affairs. 

For  me,  I  listened  longer  than  I  understood,  and  when 
the  company  broke  up  into  groups  again,  and  different 
gentlemen  began  impressing  their  wishes  on  each  other,  I 
left  the  library  and  crossed  to  the  parlor,  where  I  hoped  to 
find  my  guardian  genius  in  the  house,  my  "  guide,  philoso 
pher  and  friend,"  Mary  Bell. 

I  found  there,  as  I  knew  I  should,  several  ladies,  generally 
the  wives  of  the  gentlemen  who  had  met  in  the  library. 
There  was  quite  a  little  party  assembled. 

I  joined  Miss  Bell  at  once. 

It  is  very  hard  to  describe  the  charm  which  this  young 
woman, — I  had  almost  said  this  girl, — already  had  over 
me.  It  is  very  hard  to  describe  her.  I  have  never  known 
any  one  say  she  was  beautiful  when  he  had  seen  her  but 
once ;  nay,  when  he  had  only  seen  her,  as  you  might  see 
her,  as  she  rode  by  in  a  carriage.  On  the  other  hand,  if  an 
impious  person  should  say  in  a  group  of  her  friends  that 


44  MY   FRIEND    THE   BOSS. 

Mary  Bell  is  not  beautiful,  he  would  hardly  escape  with  his 
life,  after  the  assertion.  Clearly  the  charm  is  in  her  expres 
sion,  as  people  say,  if  they  only  quite  knew  what  they 
meant.  I  have  found  this  out,  that  her  voice  is  very  sweet, 
and  shows  its  sweetness  in  talk  quite  as  well  and  as  often 
as  in  the  elaborations  of  music. 

What  I  said  of  her  raving,  when  we  were  in  the  carriage, 
shows  what  is  her  enthusiasm  for  nature.  Indeed,  when  I 
joined  the  party  in  the  drawing-room,  Mary  Bell  was  saying 
to  a  Mr.  Rossiter,  who  had  left  the  library  a  little  before  me, 

"  Oh,  yes  !  in  the  perfect  world, — whenever  we  come  so 
far, — all  our  dances  will  be  out-of-doors." 

They  had  been  talking  of  the  impromptu  frolic,  led  by 
Mrs.  Grattan,  on  the  lawn. 

"  Then  we  shall  certainly  not  dance  much  in  what  is  now 
the  dancing  season,"  said  he.  "  Low  dresses  and  satin 
slippers  will  have  little  chance  with  the  snow  fifteen  inches 
deep  and  the  thermometer  below  zero." 

"Who  said  satin  slippers,  Mr.  Rossiter?"  said  she. 
"  And  who  asked  for  low  dresses?  You  only  show  your 
crass  conservatism,  as  Mr.  Mellen  here  would  say.  Only 
yesterday  Mrs.  Fisher  brought  home  a  charming  book  of 
national  costumes,  where  there  is  a  lovely  Polish  lady 
waltzing  in  fur  boots  and  in  a  coat  of  furs. 

"  You  may  be  sure  that  half  the  social  evils  you  gentle 
men  are  battling  about  in  the  library,  come  from  the  people's 
staying  in-doors  so  much." 

"I  should  like  to  know  what  you  would  say,  after  a 
winter  with  the  Sioux  on  the  plains,"  said  he. 

"  Well,  we  need  not  push  things  to  the  extremes,"  said 
Mary  Bell.  "Perhaps  the  Sioux  and  we  can  meet  half 


MY    FRIEND    THE    BOSS.  45 

way.  Let  us  persuade  Stilling  &  Hausbildcr  to  send  them 
out  a  little  consignment  of  frame  houses — say  ten  thousand  ; 
that  is  nothing  to  Stilling  &  Hausbilder.  That  will  make 
fifty  thousand  poor,  freezing  wretches  comfortable.  Then 
the  Sioux  may  send  back  to  me,  and  other  long-suffering 
people  like  me,  fifty  thousand  skins  of  ermine,  and  otter, 
and  beaver,  and  elk,  and  bear,  and  we  will  be  grateful  to 
them,  if  only  they  or  any  power  can  keep  us  in  the  open  air 
four  hours  of  every  winter  day." 

Mr.  Rossiter  laughed,  and  said  that  she  solved  the  Indian 
problem  very  easily.  She  threw  the  solution,  he  observed, 
quite  largely  on  Stilling  &  Hausbilder. 

"  Not  too  largely,  perhaps,"  said  Mary  Bell,  speaking 
now  more  seriously.  "I  do  not  know  Mr.  Stilling,  but  I 
do  know  Mr.  Hausbilder.  He  helped  me  through  so  well 
with  one  of  my  poor  people.  A  man  who  has  worked  his 
way  up,  every  inch  from  the  bottom.  He  knows  what  it  is 
to  be  hungry,  and  what  it  is  to  be  cold.  And  he  is  a  man 
who  takes  hold  with  a  will  when  there  is  anything  to  do. 

"  Yes  ;  there  are  rich  men,  and  rich  men.  Some  of  them, 
and  this  is  one  of  them,  like  to  succeed  in  their  business. 
Just  as  Cordelia  Grattan  likes  to  write  a  good  story  ;  just  as 
Meissonier  likes  to  paint  a  good  picture  ;  just  as  Dr.  Thorn- 
dike  likes  to  have  a  patient  get  well,  this  Mr.  Hausbilder 
likes  to  send  a  house  to  the  king  of  the  Cannibal  Islands. 
He  likes  to  have  it  go  up  without  the  sound  of  a  hammer. 
He  likes  to  imagine  the  king's  satisfaction  when  he  comes 
down  from  the  hills  after  two  days,  and  finds  the  house 
standing  there.  He  likes  to  have  anybody  write  and  tell 
him  about  it. 

"  He   does  it  because   he  likes   it.     He   does  not  do   it 


46  MY    FRIEND    THE    BOSS. 

because  Mr.  Ledger,  the  book-keeper,  or  Mr.  Skinflint,  the 
financial  partner,  tells  him  that  they  have  made  eleven  hun 
dred  and  twelve  dollars  and  twenty-three  cents  on  the  houses 
they  sent  to  the  Cannibal  Islands. 

"  He  wants  to  have  the  people  in  this  world  live  in  better 
houses.  This  is  his  way  of  making  the  Kingdom  of  God 
come." 

I  said  with  some  of  her  enthusiasm  that  Westerly  said 
the  same  thing  to  me  about  clothing  every  twentieth  man  in 
the  country.  He  took  real  pleasure,  substantial  pleasure,  in 
knowing  that  they  had  better  clothes  on  their  backs  than 
they  would  have  had  if  he  had  not  lived. 

"No!"  said  Mary  Bell.  "I  used  to  think  the  money 
part  was  the  hard  part.  I  do  not  think  so  now.  Is  not 
your  poor  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  half  crazy  because  he 
does  not  know  what  to  do  with  his  money  ?  He  pulls  down 
his  vaults  and  builds  larger. 

"  Poor  man  !  "  and  she  shuddered.  "  I  should  think  he 
would  be  so  afraid  of  the  parable." 

Mr.  Rossiter  said  that  his  mother  used  to  say  that  slie 
had  been  tried  with  all  the  trials  except  one.  She  was  sev 
enty  years  old,  and  said  she  wished  she  could  be  tried  by 
Prosperity.  She  wanted  to  know  how  she  should  bear 
that. 

"  I  wish  I  had  known  your  mother,"  cried  Mary  Bell,  and 
I  saw  that  at  the  moment  the  young  man's  cheeks  flushed 
red.  He  was  not  wholly  under  his  own  control.  "I  think," 
said  she,  "  that  I  should  have  agreed  with  her  in  so  many 
things." 

Was  Mr.  Rossiter,  then,  so  intimate  with  Miss  Bell  that 
she  knew  what  his  mother  said  or  thought  often  ? 


MY    FRIEND    THE    BOSS.  47 

She  turned  to  me,  and  asked  some  question  about  what 
she  called  the  caucus  in  the  library. 

I  answered  as  well  as  I  could".  But  I  found  I  was  annoyed, 
when  Rossiter,  who  knew  everybody  and  understood  the  lay 
of  the  land  so  much  better  than  I  did,  was  able  to  supple 
ment  my  explanation,  and,  in  fact,  filled  in  the  exact  gap 
where  mine  failed. 

Why  was  I  annoyed  ?  Mr.  Rossiter  did  this  without  the 
least  presumption  or  affectation.  Why  should  he  not  tell 
Miss  Bell  what  she  wanted  to  know? 

None  the  less  I  was  annoyed,  and  I  was  annoyed  because 
I  was  annoyed.  Who  was  this  Mr.  Rossiter?  I  crossed 
the  room  to  ask  my  other  friend  in  the  family,  Cordelia 
Grattan,  who  was  just  leaving  the  piano. 

But  at  this  moment  there  was  a  general  incursion  of  all 
the  men  in  the  library.  We  had  but  few  ladies  in  the 
drawing-room  to  meet  the  requisitions,  or  to  make  agree- 
ableness,  light  and  sweetness  for  so  great  a  multitude,  still, 
our  little  handful  of  skirmishers  formed  in  open  order  to 
receive  infantry  as  well  as  they  could. 

But  Cordelia  Grattan  was  surrounded  by  half-a-dozen 
gentlemen  beside  myself,  and  I  found  I  had  no  chance  to  ask 
her  personal  questions  about  the  company. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

T  MUST  not  attempt  to  follow,  in  such  detail,  the  successive 

days  of  even  the  short  visit  which  I  made  with  John 

Fisher.     To  the  last,  each  day  was  a  day  of  surprises.     I 

never  knew  whether  we  were  to  be  artists,  or  historians,  or 


48  MY   FRIEND   THE    BOSS. 

people  of  fashion,  or  ecclesiastics,  or  patrons  of  education. 
Days  came,  indeed,  when  we  led  a  simple  home  life,  if  we 
chose,  though  there  was  always  a  good  deal  of  coming  and 
going  for  those  who  would.  The  children  were  bright, 
wide-awake,  intelligent  girls  and  boys,  who  were  evidently 
made  to  understand  that  they  must  take  their  share  in  the 
work  of  the  world,  and  not  expect  play  unmixed  with  work, 
or  sugar  without  its  share  of  lemon-juice. 

I  was  very  much  interested  to  see  how  John  Fisher  made 
both  boys  and  girls  his  companions.  They  were  as  much 
at  home  in  his  work-room  as  he  was.  Those  who  were  old 
enough  would  copy  a  letter,  or  translate  an  invoice,  as  if 
they  had  been  trained  clerks.  And,  in  talk  at  table,  he  took 
it  for  granted  that  they  were  interested  in  what  interested  him, 
as  if  indeed  they  had  been  his  partners. 

There  were  horses  and  carriages  enough  in  the  stables  to 
meet  the  requisitions  even  of  the  most  varied  caprice.  And 
people  used  them  freely.  I  had  been  driving  one  morning, 
early  in  my  visit,  with  Mrs.  Grattan.  I  had  tried  to  draw 
out  from  her  some  hints  as  to  the  standing  and  influence  of 
one  or  two  of  the  gentlemen  with  whom  I  had  affairs  in  the 
city,  and  not  without  success.  But  I  may  as  well  confess 
that  my  secret  object  in  proposing  the  drive  had  been  to 
come  at  some  better  understanding  about  Mary  Bell  and  her 
position  in  the  family.  Mary  Bell  lent  a  hand  always,  but 
she  did  not  seem  like  what  one  calls  a  "German  wife,"  that 
convenient  member  in  a  large  German  household  who  relieves 
the  lady  of  the  house  from  all  care,  and  leaves  her  free  for 
all  relaxation  and  amusement.  Yet  she  did  not  seem  to  me 
on  a  visit  simply,  as  I  was.  Servants  and  children  seemed 
to  recognize  her  presence  as  if  she  were  to  the  manor  bred, 


MY      FRIEND    THE    BOSS.  49 

and  was  to  remain  there.     There  had  been  no  talk  of  her 
arrival,  and  there  was  no  allusion  to  her  going  away. 

I  quite  pleased  myself  with  my  skill  in  leading  up  to  talk 
of  Miss  Bell,  as  if  I  had  not  led  up  to  it.  And  very  much 
was  I  pleased  by  Mrs.  Grattan's  frank  and  hearty  enthusiasm 
about  her.  I  had  seen,  before  this,  the  simple  and  wholly  un- 
consciotis  way  in  which  a  lady  of  large  fortune  can  speak  of 
some  old  school  friend,  who  is  living  on  three  hundred  a 
year,  as  if  income  were  of  no  consequence,  and  a  few  mil 
lions  in  bonds,  more  or  less,  a  sheer  nothing,  in  comparison 
Avith  good  temper,  or  pleasant  memories  of  school.  Cordelia 
Grattan  spoke  now  in  this  easy  way  ;  she  spoke  with  all 
the  eagerness  of  a  determined  friend,  and,  what  pleased  me 
most,  she  recognized  the  absolutely  indescribable  charm  in 
Mary  Bell,  which  had  so  attracted  me,  and  which  I  found  it 
impossible  to  define. 

I  did  not,  however,  dare  talk  too  long,  even  on  a  subject 
so  agreeable.  As  if  we  had  come  on  it  merely  by  chance, 
sure  that  I  could  now  renew  it  when  I  would,  I  put  in  an 
allusion  to  Mrs.  Fisher,  who  confused  me  more  and  more. 
And  once  more,  just  as  it  had  been  with  Miss  Bell,  once  or 
twice,  when  I  had  tried  such  an  experiment,  I  was  landed 
in  Antipodes. 

"I  thought  Mrs.  Fisher  seemed  annoyed  this  morning 
when  the  children  spoke  of  Dr.  Lemon's  lecture.  Is  she  so 
fond  of  him?"  This  was  my  ingenious  question. 

"I  think  you  did  not  hear  Dr.  Lemon."  This  was  the 
more  ingenious  reply.  For  the  subtle  lady  went  on,  "You 
must  not  pretend  to  talk  of  the  Philippine  Islands,  until 
you  have  heard  all  our  missionary  course.  We  shall  teach 
you  the  difference  between  Apiu  and  Opiana.  That  is  really 


50  MY   FRIEND    THE    BOSS. 

a  curious  business,  the  traces  of  taboo  after  two  generations 
of  Christianity.  Did  you —  "  etc.,  etc.,  etc.,  and  not  one 
word,  too,  from  me  as  to  Mrs.  Fisher  or  her  peculiarities. 

As  we  drove  up  to  the  door  my  lively  companion  looked 
at  her  watch,  and  declared  that  we  were  late,  and  that  she  had 
to  dress.  "And  we  must  be  very  early,"  she  said  "for  the 
ministers  will  only  adjourn  for  an  hour.  They  will  call  it 
an  hour,  and  in  truth  it  will  be  only  an  hour  and  a  half." 

"Ministers!"  said  I,  amazed.  For  I  had  thought  we 
were  to  lunch  by  ourselves. 

"Is  it  possible,"  said  she,  as  she  jumped  from  the  carriage, 
"that  you  are  so  taken  up  with  your  licenses  and  your  drunk 
enness  that  you  do  not  know  that  the  Convention  of  Cove 
nanters  met  here  this  morning?  Why  all  the  chiefs,fthe  pre 
siding  elders  and  all  the  rest  are  to  lunch  with  us,  and  I 
must  run  up  stairs  to  attend  to  my  finery." 


CHAPTER    X. 

E  of  the  servants  confirmed  Mrs.  Grattan's  statement. 
Lunch   was  to  be    served   half   an   hour   earlier  than 
usual. 

The  second  secession  of  Reformed  Covenanters  holds  very 
much  the  same  position  in  Tamworth  which  the  Greek 
church  has  in  Moscow,  the  Latin  church  in  Rome,  the  En 
glish  church  in  Canterbury , and  your  own  church,  dear  reader, 
in  the  particular  city  or  town  in  which  you  read  these  lines. 
Possibly  it  might  fare  as  well  without  a  Decennial  Con- 


MY    FRIEND    THE    BOSS.  51 

vention  as  with  one.  But  its  leaders  do  not  think  so,  and 
on  this  occasion  one  of  these  great  historical  gatherings  came 
in  on  us  just  as  we  were  preparing  for  our  critical  local  elec 
tion. 

Some  two  thousand  delegates  were  in  town,  quartered  by 
a  central  committee  on  the  different  residents,  and  I  soon 
found  that  eight  or  ten  of  them  had  been  billeted  on  Mr. 
Fisher,  and  were  beginning  their  visit  under  our  hospitable 
roof.  Some  forty  or  fifty  others  had  been  asked  to-day  to 
lunch,  and  had  accepted  under  the  stern  condition  that  they 
could  be  only  absent  from  the  town  hall  an  hour,  or,  at  the 
most,  an  hour  and  a  half.  On  such  occasions  the  clergy  are 
regardless  of  dyspepsia,  as  indeed  they  are,  perhaps,  on  too 
many  others. 

I  had  scarcely  entered  the  parlors  where  they  met,  when 
I  saw  that  John  Fisher's  invitations  had  been  wisely  given, 
whoever  had  been  trusted  with  that  affair.  Wisely,  I  mean, 
if  he  meant  to  have  the  leaders  of  opinion,  or  those  who 
thought  they  were.  For,  though  there  were  sitting  meekly 
by  different  doors,  in  small  chairs,  with  their  backs  to  the 
wall,  two  or  three  of  those  timid  brethren  who  always  make 
one  element  of  such  a  party  and  take  this  method  of  giving 
literal  obedience  to  the  instructions  of  the  parable,  the  large 
part  of  the  company  were  men  at  ease  in  society,  men  who 
would  have  attracted  note  anywhere,  and  were  not  unused 
to  offering  their  opinions,  and  commanding  respect  for  them. 
They  were  in  half-a-dozen  groups,  eagerly  discussing  the 
policies  of  the  convention,  past  and  to  come.  There  was 
the  inevitable  group  of  those  who  wanted  the  "  business  "  to 
go  on  in  a  pre-ordained  and  well-regulated  fashion.  There 
was  the  other  inevitable  group  of  those  who  considered  that 


52  MY    FRIEND    THE    BOSS. 

this  well-regulated  fashion  had  been  regulated  only  by  Satan, 
or  one  of  his  satellites,  and  who  were  determined  to  over 
throw  it.  But  these  different  groups  were  perfectly  good- 
tempered  ;  and,  from  one  nebula  to  another,  messenger 
comets  passed,  from  time  to  time,  bringing  or  carrying  one 
or  another  proposition  for  conciliation.  "  Would  White 
accept  such  an  amendment?"  or,  "  Would  Jones  withdraw 
his  motion  till  Brown  had  offered  his?"  or,  "  Would  Black 
yield  the  floor  to  Gray,  that  Gray  might  explain  AVhite's 
amendment  to  Black  ? "  All  this  was  eagerly  canvassed 
Avhile  we  waited  the  short  summons  to  what  was  called 
"  lunch,"  and  was  an  elaborate  dinner. 

Be  it  known  to  readers  in  Europe  that  the  hospitality  of 
the  great  Western  cities  of  America  does  not  limit  itself 
severely  by  names.  You  are  asked  to  dine  at  six,  and  you 
decline  because  you  are  engaged  elsewhere.  Then  you  are 
asked  to  lunch  at  one,  and  you  accept,  and  the  provision 
made  for  you  is  perhaps  identical  in  form  with  what  it  would 
be  at  the  most  elaborate  dinner.  At  least  it  is  such  as 
would  have  been  ample  for  Amadis,  were  he  looking  on 
food  for  the  last  time  before  a  six  days'  encounter  with 
giants. 

I  sat  at  Mrs.  Fisher's  end  of  one  of  two  long  tables 
which  had  been  set  in  the  largest  drawing-room  of  the 
house,  the  ample  dining-room  even  being  insufficient  for  so 
large  a  company.  I  found,  as  I  had  expected,  that  all  the 
more  prominent  of  the  clergy  of  the  neighborhood  were 
there,  of  Avhatever  communion.  There  were  two  bishops, 
for  instance,  and  all  the  professors  of  both  theological 
schools.  On  this  occasion  all  warfare  between  "  Homoi " 
and  "  Homo"  ceased,  and  there  was  no  difference  between 


MY    FRIEND    THE    BOSS.  53 

an  ultra  Montanist  and  an  Ultra-montanist.  On  other  days 
the  hyphen  separates  two  worlds  of  belief.  We  were  the 
lions  and  the  lambs,  and  while  we  discussed  the  oysters,  the 
clear  soup,  the  white  fish,  the  fillet  and  other  necessaries  of 
life  at  Mr.  Fisher's  board,  we  did  not  feast  upon  each  other. 

But  I  need  hardly  say  that  Mrs.  Fisher  did  her  best  to 
disturb  this  harmony.  Nothing  but  the  admirable  breeding 
of  the  different  theologians  prevented  her.  I  hardly  ought, 
however,  to  give  her  credit  for  any  intention  in  the  matter. 
I  think  that  she  simply  gabbled  from  "native  impulse,  ele 
mental  force,"  as  a  forgotten  poet  says.  None  the  less  it  is 
true,  as  Henry  Kingsley  says,  that,  when  the  Devil  has  no 
knave  for  an  errand,  he  sends  a  fool,  and  that  this  answers 
quite  as  well. 

My  experience  has  confirmed  Henry  Kingsley's.  Mrs. 
Fisher,  of  course,  did  not  know  the  names  of  many  of  the 
strangers.  But  she  did  know  the  clergymen  of  Tamworth, 
and  perhaps  had  herself  arranged  that  most  of  these  gentle 
men  should  sit  at  our  end  of  her  table.  So  soon  as  there 
was  a  chance,  she  began  with  her  little  compliments. 

"My  dear  Professor  Prince,  let  me  thank  you  with  all  my 
heart  for  your  charming  article  in  the  Panoplist.  I  would 
not  go  to  bed  till  I  had  read  it  through.  I  said  to  Cordelia, 
'  You  may  go  to  bed,  the  rest  of  you,  but  I  will  read  every 
word  of  this  paper  ;  it  is  so  convincing  and  cogent.'  And  so  in 
structive,  too  !  I  agree  with  you  in  every  word,  and  I  know 
my  husband  does.  Do  not  you,  Dr.  Witherspoon?  Have 
you  seen  the  Panoplist  ?" 

Now  the  truth  was  that  it  was  only  by  the  merest  accident 
that  Mrs.  Fisher  knew  that  there  was  any  such  article.  She 
had  happened  to  see  the  magazine  on  the  library  table  on 


54  MY   FRIEND    THE    BOSS. 

that  morning,  and  had  observed  Professor  Prince's  name,  as 
one  of  the  authors,  on  the  cover.  Unfortunately,  too,  the 
article  was  a  bitter  personal  attack  on  this  very  Dr.  Wither- 
spoon  to  whom  she  appealed  so  confidently.  It  was,  indeed, 
much  more  sharp  than  are  even  the  terms  of  ordinary 
"theological  hatred"  ;  and  I  fancy  that  even  Prince  himseli 
was  thoroughly  ashamed  of  it  by  this  time. 

But  Dr.  Witherspoon  is  a  well-bred  man,  and  was  equal 
to  the  emergency. 

"I  have  not  read  my  Panoplist  carefully,"  said  he  ;  "I 
opened  on  their  article  on  the  '  Lost  Cities  of  Edom,'  and 
that  sent  me  back  to  Waddington's  book,  which  I  had  not 
seen.  Mr  Alvord,"  he  added,  bowing  to  one  of  the  strange 
gentlemen,  "  I  think  you  have  been  in  Edom?" 

And  they  launched  at  once  into  questions  of  trans- Jordanic 
antiquities,  quite  to  Mrs.  Fisher's  amazement.  She  had 
heard  of  "lost  cities,"  and  had  practiced  a  little  in  the  game 
which  bears  that  name.  You  hide  the  name  of  Troy,  for  in 
stance,  in  such  a  phrase  as  "What  royal  weather."  Mrs. 
Fisher  tried  to  recollect  how  the  word  ' '  Elyria  "  was  buried 
in  the  phrase,  "John's  grandmother  died  yesterday."  But 
she  had  either  confounded  the  name  "Elyria"  with  some 
other  name,  or  it  was  not  John's  grandmother  who  had  died. 
Poor  Dr.  Lemon  had  never  heard  of  the  game,  and  did  not 
in  the  least  understand  what  she  meant.  While  he  listened 
to  her  he  was  trying  to  catch  what  the  traveler  said,  and  he 
put  in  "Yes"and  "No, "and  "That  is  curious,"  in  very  bad 
places.  But  Mrs.  Fisher  did  not  mind  this  ;  and  Professor 
Prince  seemed  to  me  ashamed  of  his  ill-nature,  and  glad  for 
the  relief  Mr.  Alvord  gave  him. 

Mrs.  Fisher  had  lately  returned  from  a  six  weeks'  visit  in 


MY   FRIEND    THE    BOSS.  55 

Baltimore,  and  some  one  asked  her  if  there  had  not  been  an 
unusual  religious  interest  there.  "Oh,  yes!  I  think  so; 
I  know  there  was  ;  Mrs.  Carrol  was  speaking  to  Miss  Linders 
about  it,  I  am  quite  sure,  the  morning  we  drove  in  the  park. 
But  you  know  I  had  such  a  cold  all  the  time  I  was  in  Balti 
more."  Poor  Dr.  Lemon  on  one  side  of  her,  and  Dr.  Van- 
derweyer  on  the  other,  had  to  give  her  up  at  last.  But  she 
would  not  give  them  up.  Lemon  was  perfectly  delighted  to 
find  himself  so  near  the  great  Dr.  Vanderweyer.  Vander- 
weyer  was  just  home  from  traveling  in  Europe.  He  had 
dined  with  Gladstone ;  Ruskin  had  taken  him  through  the 
galleries  ;  he  had  even  traveled  with  Tennyson,  had  met 
Martineau  and  Cardinal  Wiseman  again  and  again  ;  had  been 
made  a  guest  and  was  quite  at  home  at  Balliol,  and  in  Paris 
had  been  invited  to  lecture.  It  was  a  great  thing  for  quiet  Dr. 
Lemon  to  meet  Vanderweyer,  and  hear  him  talk.  He  would 
not  talk  across  Mrs.  Fisher,  but  he  did  think  he  might  pick 
up  some  crumbs.  He  was  doomed  to  disappointment. 

After  the  episode  with  Professor  Prince,  she  turned  to  her 
neighbor  and  said  to  him,  "  Doctor,  I  have  been  dying 
to  see  your  wife,  and  now  I  shall  send  her  a  message  by 
you." 

"Yes,"  said  the  great  man,  and  he  added  gallantly  that  he 
would  not  forget  one  message  though  she  should  give  him 
one  hundred.  What  could  Mrs.  Vanderweyer  write  or  do? 
He  should  be  at  home  on  Monday,  and  Mrs.  Fisher  should 
hear  directly. 

"  I  want  her  to  send  me  word,  Doctor,  whether  she  puts 
camphor  under  the  edges  of  her  carpets,  or  whether  she  ever 
tried  green  tobacco  leaves.  I  read  in  a  newspaper  that  crude 
camphor,"  etc.,  etc.,  etc. 


56  MY   FRIEND    THE    BOSS. 

And  this  ended  all  hope  of  hearing  any  of  the  central 
axioms  of  life  from  Dr.  Vanderweyer. 

The  courses  were  very  promptly  served.  The  ministers 
seemed  to  be  men  not  unused  to  eating  rapidly,  and  talking  a 
good  deal  at  the  same  time.  Within  an  hour  and  twenty 
minutes,  this  little  interlude  to  the  great  discussions  of  the 
convention  was  over  ;  and  Fisher  and  his  wife,  Mrs.  Grattan, 
Miss  Bell  and  I,  found  ourselves  alone  in  the  library. 

"  Peace  after  storm,"  said  Mary  Bell. 

"Storm  !  "  said  Fisher,  laughing.  "We  had  no  storm  at 
our  end  of  the  table.  They  were  as  good-natured  as  lambs." 

"My  gentlemen  were  good-natured  enough,"  said  she. 
"But  they  forgot  my  existence.  There  was  so  much  talk 
about  the  amendment,  and  the  rider,  and  the  original  proposi 
tion  and  the  substitute,  that  I  really  forgot  minor  matters,  as 
the  Ten  Commandments  and  Beatitudes.  I  wonder  if  I  did 
not  steal  that  little  man's  handkerchief,"  and  she  pretended 
to  look  at  her  own  to  see  what  initials  were  marked  on  it. 

"But  that  is  the  manner  of  conventions,  "  said  our  good- 
natured  host.  ' '  Think  what  a  variety  this  is  to  these  gentle 
men.  Those  very  neighbors  of  yours,  now;  for  six  months, 
those  good  fellows  have  had  no  chance  to  try  their  hand  in 
governing  in  this  fashion.  One  of  them  has  been  begging 
money  for  Siloam  college ;  one  of  them  has  been  bullying 
the  school  committee  of  Cranberry  Centre  ;  one  of  them  has 
fought  through  his  drainage  scheme  for  Hollybank,  and  that 
little  white  one  had  been  reading  his  proof-sheets  for  a  new 
translation  of  the  '  Wisdom  of  the  Son  of  Sirach.'  It  does 
them  no  end  of  good  to  be  shaken  up  together.  The  ministers' 
parties  are  the  most  interesting  to  me  of  all  of  them.  Be 
cause,  if  you  asK  the  right  men,  any  forty  of  them  take  a 


MY    FRIEND    THE    BOSS.  57 

wider  range  than  any  other  forty  men  you  can  light  on 
easily." 

I  said  I  did  not  see  that. 

"  Oh  !"  said  Fisher.  "Forty  artists  all  talk  Rose  Madder 
and  wrinkled  canvas. 

"Forty  newspaper  men  all  talk  about  the  Associated  Press. 

"Forty  authors  talk  about  International  Copyright. 

"But  you  get  forty  ministers  together,  and  you  do  not  know 
what  will  come.  They  will  talk  about  anything  in  the 
heavens  above  or  the  earth  beneath." 

"  What  I  know,  "  said  Mrs.  Fisher,  "  is  that  that  ridicu 
lous  Mr.  Alvord  does  not  know  what  a  lost  city  is." 

Fisher  took  me  off  with  him. 

"It  is  a  good  thing,"  he  said,  "to  bring  the  different 
kinds  together.  At  heart,  the  ministers  themselves  are 
catholic  and  tolerant.  It  is  rather  the  denominational  news 
papers  which  keep  up  the  sectarianism  of  the  country.  The 
ministers  themselves  know  they  are  in  the  same  boat,  and, 
whenever  they  are  thrown  together,  they  find  a  thousand 
ways  to  help  each  other." 


CHAPTER  XI. 

TT  7HEN  the  carriage  came  for  me,  which  my  friends  of 
the  Temperance  Society  had  sent,  on  the  evening  of 
my  speech,  I  noticed  that  there  was  a  policeman  on  the  box 
with  the  coachman.  I  had  been,  I  confess,  a  little  disappoint 
ed  when  I  found  that  Mrs.  Grattan  and  Miss  Bell  were  not 
coming  to  the  meeting.  John  Fisher  did  join  me. 


58  MY   FRIEND    THE    BOSS. 

The  two  members  of  the  committee  who  escorted  us  were 
gentlemen  I  had  not  met  before,  and,  at  the  very  first,  I  fan 
cied  that  they  were  more  excited  than  the  occasion  seemed  to 
me  to  warrant.  Scarcely  were  we  in  the  carriage  when  one  of 
them  began  to  advise  the  coachman  as  to  his  route. 

"  Careful  Thomas  ;  be  sure  you  turn  in  by  Ninth  street. 
Don't  let  them  see  you  on  the  avenue." 

Then  the  other  tried  to  soothe  him.  "  You  are  nervous, 
Harry;  you  are  nervous.  You've  never  been  under  fire." 
But,  though  he  said  to  me,  in  a  reassuring  way,  "It  is  all  right ; 
it  is  all  right,  Mr.  Mellen,"  it  was  clear  enough  to  me  that 
he  was  the  more  nervous  of  the  two. 

Gradually  it  leaked  out  that  a  row  was  quite  probable. 
All  the  afternoon  handbills  had  been  circulated,  and  posters 
on  the  walls  had  announced  that  no  Chinaman  should  speak 
in  Tamworth.  Some  ingenious  liquor  dealer,  who  had 
wanted  to  breakup  the  meeting,  had  given  the  idea  that,  be 
cause  I  had  just  come  from  San  Francisco,  I  was  an  apostle 
of  Chinese  labor,  of  the  religion  of  Confucius  in  general  and 
particular.  When  our  friends  had  left  the  hall,  to  come  for 
us,  a  considerable  crowd  was  already  around  the  doors,  and 
one  of  them  had  heard  an  address  in  which  it  was  explained 
that  Chinamen  ate  rats,  and  could  therefore  under-bid  the 
regular  workman  in  his  own  market.  It  had  also  been  ex 
plained  that  he  drank  nothing  but  bilge-water,  and,  as  soon 
as  he  arrived,  would  prohibit  the  sale  of  whisky  and  lager. 
The  keeper  of  the  hall  had  shown  the  white  feather,  and 
wanted  to  postpone  the  meeting.  But  bolder  counsels  had 
prevailed.  He  had  been  compelled  to  light  up,  and  had  been 
bidden  to  open  the  doors  at  the  usual  hour.  The  Mayor  had 
been  notified  of  the  danger,  and  now  our  carriage  was  to 


MY    FRIEND    THE    BOSS.  59 

dodge  through  the  streets,  that  I  might  enter  quietly  at  the 
back  of  the  hall  through  Judge  Tristum's  private  door. 

This  was  the  reason  why  John  Fisher  had  bidden  Miss 
Bell  and  Mrs.  G rattan  stay  away.  I  say  "bidden";  he 
advised  at  first,  and  they  were  only  more  eager  to  be 
present.  He  had  been  forced  to  assume  for  once  the  aspect 
of  command. 

As  for  his  wife,  he  knew  she  would  not  come,  because  as 
late  as  dinner  she  had  said  she  should  certainly  be  one  of  the 
party. 

We  made  the  transit  safely  through  Judge  Tristum's 
office.  The  old  gentleman  was  there  himself,  with  both  his 
sons,  to  join  us  on  the  platform.  "  It  is  a  good  while  since 
I  have  gone  to  a  temperance  meeting,  Mr.  Mellen,"  he  said 
to  me.  "But  this  promises  to  be  interesting,"  with  a 
delightful  smile.  Then  we  Avere  both  introduced  to  Mr. 
Stepney,  a  young  man  whom  I  had  never  met,  who  was  to 
make  the  first  speech.  He  looked  to  me  a  little  pale.  But 
I  found  I  misjudged  him,  if  I  thought  him  afraid. 

The  moment  we  were  on  the  platform  there  was  no  ques 
tion  as  to  what  would  be  the  experience  of  the  evening,  had 
there,  indeed,  been  any  room  for  question  before. 

As  we  crossed  to  our  seats  we  could  see  that  the  hall  was 
crowded,  every  seat  filled,  and  the  aisles  between  jammed 
close  with  such  a  host  of  men  as  one  never  saw  at  a  temper 
ance  meeting  before.  Every  now  and  then  a  bottle  would 
be  tossed  from  one  side  to  another,  caught,  and  a  pretence 
made  of  drinking.  As  we  entered  a  shout  rose  of  "  No 
rats  !  No  rats  !"  and  one  boy  cried  out,  "  Where'b  the  rat 
catcher?"  by  which  epithet  I  know  he  meant  me. 

Had  they  but  known  it,  it  so  happens  that  I  sympathize 


60  MY   FRIEND    THE   BOSS. 

through  and  through  with  the  feeling  on  the  Pacific  coast, 
that  our  civilization  is  our  own,  and  that  we  ought  not  to  be 
expected  to  receive  all  the  overplus  of  Asia.  I  know  that, 
if  I  lived  there,  I  should  join  in  very  stringent  measures,  so 
they  were  legal,  to  keep  out  the  Chinaman.  I  never  forgot 
how  Arinori,  the  Japanese  minister,  once  said  to  me,  "If  I 
were  an  American  statesman,  I  would  resist  the  Chinese  in 
vasion  with  the  last  drop  of  my  blood."  But  the  platform 
and  the  meeting  were  no  place  for  me  to  say  this.  I  saw  in 
a  minute  that  this  crowd  was  of  that  complexion  and  quality 
which,  as  Curran  says,  "It  is  not  well  to  run  away  from." 
I  altered  the  plan  of  my  speech  a  little,  that  it  should  be 
sufficiently  defiant,  and  waited  the  issue. 

The  meeting  was  opened  in  form,  and  little  Stepney  sailed 
in  magnificently.  If  the  little  fellow  was  frightened,  he  did 
not  show  it  more  than  Hardy  did  when  he  led  the  English 
line  at  Trafalgar.  Hardly  had  he  begun  when  a  dead  rat, 
thrown  from  the  floor,  grazed  his  ear  and  struck  the  Avail 
behind.  But,  on  the  same  instant,  a  stout  policeman  collared 
the  boy  who  threw  the  rat,  lifted  him  from  his  place  and 
passed  him,  over  the  heads  of  some  orderly  people  in  front,  to 
three  or  four  other  officers,  who  huddled  him  out  by  a  side 
door.  Meanwhile  cries  from  the  hall,  "Let  him  alone ! 
This  is  not  the  Chinaman  !  Down  in  front !  Let  him  go 
on !  "with  appeals  from  the  chairman,  finally  subsided  into  a 
calm,  and  Stepney  got  a  chance  to  put  in  a  hundred  words 
extremely  well.  Since  than  I  have  marked  him  as  an  orator. 
The  true  orator  is  he  who  knows  how  to  place  his  first  hundred 
words. 

He  made  a  ringing  and  effective  speech  to  an  audience,  half 
of  whom  had  never  heard  such  a  speech  before.  He  had 


MY     FRIEND   THE    BOSS.  61 

won  their  attention  in  that  first  minute  and  he  never  lost  it. 
They  fairly  applauded  him  when  he  sat  down. 

But  I,  who  was  to  follow,  did  not  deceive  myself  for  a 
moment.  I  had  had  the  chance  which  Stepney  gave  me,  by 
speaking  a  full  half-hour,  to  recast  my  speech.  I  saw  that 
full  half  my  audience  were  well  disposed,  or,  rather,  were  so 
disposed  that  they  wanted  nothing  better  than  a  fight  in  which 
they  might  turn  these  rowdies  out-of-doors.  The  episode  of 
the  boy,  captured  and  "jugged,"  showed  that  law  and  order 
had  a  certain  power  in  the  hall.  None  the  less,  however, 
was  it  clear  that  I  must  take  and  keep  an  attitude  of  confi 
dence,  even  of  attack. 

I  was  met  as  I  stepped  forward  with  ringing  cheers  and 
howls  of  derision.  1  bowed  to  the  cheers,  waited  for  them 
to  stop,  nodded  to  one  and  another  friend,  and  then  waved 
my  hand  as  if  they  were  all  my  friends.  By  this  sheer 
audacity  1  won  silence.  When  it  was  perfect  silence  I  began  : 

"  Have  you  no  good  liquor  in  Tarn  worth?  And  what  do 
you  pay  for  it?  I  saw  a  man  on  Fourth  street  selling  poor 
Indiana  wish-wash  at  ten  cents  a  drink  yesterday.  Do  you 
stand  that?  That  man  bought  at  a  dollar  and  ten  cents  a 
gallon,  and  sold  for  six  dollars  a  gallon.  We  know  better 
than  that  in  our  country." 

The  sheer  surprise  of  the  audience  at  such  secular  remarks 
from  a  "distinguished"  Temperance  orator,  as  the  bills  and 
the  president  had  described  me,  gave  me  the  all-essential  five 
minutes,  by  the  loss  of  which  any  speech  is  lost,  and  by  the 
winning  of  which,  probably,  any  speech  is  saved.  All  the 
beginning  of  the  address  was  a  subtle  attack  on  the  retailers 
(who  were,  in  fact,  ruining  half  my  audience) ,  and  was  what, 
I  dare  say,  the  men  among  them  were  in  the  habit  of  saying 


62  MY   FRIEND    THE    BOSS. 

to  each  other,  when  they  had  a  chance  to  look  back  and  see 
where  their  money  had  gone  to.  I  passed  to  more  dangerous 
ground.  "Why  should  Jem  Vilas  and  Tom  Sayers  want  to 
keep  their  shops  open  on  Sunday,  when  I  may  not  sell  dry 
goods  ;  when  Mr.  Fisher  may  not  make  machinery  ;  when  the 
trains  may  not  run  on  Sunday?"  If  a  man  bought  fruit  and 
had  it  Saturday  night,  it  might  rot  in  the  shop  before  Monday 
morning,  and  the  law  would  not  let  him  sell  it.  Why  should 
the  law  be  more  mild  on  McGullian  and  on  Harris,  than  it 
was  on  Warder  or  Trott,  who  sold  strawberries  and  bananas  ? 

But  by  this  I  was  losing  sympathy.  This  whole  row  had 
been  created  by  half-a-dozen  men  who  had  been  fined  once  and 
again  for  selling  liquors  on  Sunday.  They  were  in  presence 
before  me,  with  a  dozen  of  their  bar-tenders,  and  hundreds  of 
their  customers.  I  was  very  soon  warned  by  a  rotten  egg,  full 
on  the  bosom  of  my  shirt,  that  there  were  some  good  pitchers 
in  the  gallery,  and,  at  the  moment  when  this  strucK  me,  a 
voice  from  the  gallery  cried  out,  ' '  Tell  us  how  to  cook  rats  ! 
Turn  him  round  ;  we  want  to  see  his  tail ! "  and  my  periods 
were  lost  in  howls  ;  in  screams  ;  in  cross-talking — all  resulting 
in  that  chaos  confounded,  which  takes  possession  of  a  great 
hall  when  a  thousand  people  are  all  expressing  their  senti 
ments  together.  A  somewhat  noisy  sergeant  of  police  made 
himself  rather  conspicuous.  But,  really,  he  was  powerless. 
The  hall  was  too  full  for  any  person  to  move  from  place  to 
place  without  the  ready  help  of  those  among  whom  he  moved. 
To  make  an  arrest  and  carry  off  the  victim  was  simply 
impossible. 

While  this  chaos  lasted,  I  stood  talking  with  Fisher  and 
the  president  of  the  evening.  After  ten  minutes,  more  or  less, 
I  stepped  forward  again,  waved  my  hand  as  before,  and  as 


MY    FRIEND   THE     BOSS.  63 

before  commanded  instant  silence  ;  for  if  every  man  stops 
talking,  by  surprise,  the  place  is  as  silent  as  creation  was  in 
the  beginning. 

"  Let  me  tell  you,"  I  said,  "  how  we  do  in  China  ! " 

The  audacity  of  this  speech  saved  it  as  before. 

"•The  men  give  their  money  Saturday  night  to  their  wives. 
I  know  a  woman  who  made  her  husband  promise  to  buy  all 
his  liquor  of  her,  and  she  would  only  get  what  he  liked. 
She  got  old  Bourbon,  Dry-mash,  and  three  or  four  more  of 
the  best  Kentucky  brands.  She  made  her  parlor  into  a  pretty 
drinkiug-place,  she  got  a  neighbor  to  teach  her  how  to  mix 
liquors  well,  and  made  it  very  pleasant  for  her  husband  and 
his  friends.  He  liked  her  shop  better  than  anybody's.  It 
was  the  prettiest  shop  in  town.  She  could  buy  at  wholesale 
of  the  big  dealers,  who  ride  in  carriages,  arid  have  plenty  of 
money.  And  her  husband,  instead  of  drinking  once  a  day, 
drank  three  times  a  day,  and  then  he  drank  five  times  in  a 
day,  and,  the  more  he  drank,  the  more  money  she  made. 
And  at  last  he  died  in  the  horrors.  And  she  had  saved  up 
money  enough,  in  the  five  years  she  had  been  killing  him, 
to  build  herself  a  cottage  on  the  hill  and  to  send  all  the  children 
to  the  Academy." 

I  had  taken  them  again  by  surprise,  and  a  parable  is  al 
ways  listened  to.  People  will  remember  a  parable  fifty  years, 
when  they  do  not  remember  an  argument  for  an  hour. 
Also,  we  gained  a  laugh ;  a  hearty  laugh  from  the 
audience,  and  a  laugh  is  a  great  thing  on  the  side  of 
order.  I  had  no  passion  for  speech  under  the  circumstances. 
I  thought  if  I  could  close  handsomely,  without  one  more 
storm,  we  should  come  oft'  witli  the  honors.  One  does  not 
seek  much  logical  connection  in  such  surroundings.  Indeed, 


64  MY    FRIEND    THE    BOSS. 

it  is  a  fault  in  any  public  address,  to  a  general  audience,  to 
be  very  careful  to  tell  why  you  say  what  you  say.  Say  it. 
That  is  the  best  rule. 

' '  What  reason  is  there  why  a  handful  of  ten  men  should 
govern  Tamworth?  What  makes  Harry  Redmond  a  better 
man  than  my  friend,  yonder,  who  threw  the  turnip  at  me? 
Why  is  Fritz  Reidelberger  more  fit  to  govern  Tamworth 
than  Rudolph  Kramer  or  Carl  Schmidt?  Who  told  Frank 
Wallis  that  he  was  one  of  the  rulers  of  Tamworth  to  rule  you 

workingmen,  who  held  the  votes  of  Tamworth "     And, 

by  this  time,  they  sa\v  I  was  reading  from  a  list,  on  which 
were  Redmond's  name,  Reidelberger's  and  Wallis's.  I  went 
through  the  list  of  ten.  "These  are  the  ten  men  whose 
names  are  on  all  the  bonds  of  all  the  liquor-dealers  here. 
There  is  not  a  poor  man  who  wants  to  sell  you  or  me  whisky 
but  he  has  had  to  go  to  one  of  these  men  and  make  a  bow  to 
him,  and  ask  him  to  sign  his  license  bond.  These  ten  men  it  is, 
who  mean  to  tell  you  how  to  vote  when  the  Election  Day 
comes  round.  These  ten  men  will  meet  in  the  private  office 
of  somebody's  brevc'ry " 

"Fitting place  !  "  screamed  an  enthusiast,  delighted  to  have 
a  few  bottom  facts  alluded  to. 

" I  do  not  know  your  names,"  said  I,  "only  I  took  this 
list  yesterday  from  the  Registrar's  office.  These  ten  men 
will  meet  somewhere,  and  they  will  make  the  list  of  votes 
which  you  are  to  carry  when  that  day  comes  round . 

"  Now,  you  are  Americans,  all  of  you.  You  do  not  mean 
to  be  led  by  the  nose  !  If  these  men  were  priests,  and  had 
their  heads  shaven,  and  wore  long  black  coats,  with  little 
whole  white  collars  round  their  necks,  and  they  came  and 
told  you  how  to  vote,  you  would  pack  them  all  on  a  train 


MY    FRIEND    THE    BOSS.  65 

and  send  them  to  the  place  they  came  from.  If  they 
were  in  any  uniform,  if  they  wore  red  coats,  or  if  they 
had  silver  buttons  on  their  sleeves,  like  the  Greasers  yonder 
in  Mexico,  you  would  heat  a  tar-barrel  and  give  them  a 
coat  of  white  feathers.  But  they  do  not  wear  uniforms. 
They  only  act  uniform.  They  do  not  show  their  colors. 
They  meet  in  the  back  parlor,  and  the  ticket  — 

This  was  as  far  as  I  ever  went  in  that  speech.  By  this 
time  the  men  who  had  undertaken  to  capture  the  meeting 
had  quite  enough  of  it  and  of  me.  They  were  on  their 
feet  again,  howling.  The  men  behind  them  were  howling 
again  in  one  interest  or  another.  Such  missiles  as  remained 
were  flung  upon  the  stage.  Stepney  made  a  clever  diversion 
by  catching  a  cabbage,  as  if  it  had  been  a  base-ball,  and 
tossing  it  across  to  the  President.  But  at  this  moment  a 
critical  accident  ended  the  whole  thing.  Some  one  slung  a 
heavy  rutabaga  at  me.  It  missed  me,  but  struck  John 
Fisher  rather  heavily,  as  he  sat  at  my  left.  It  scratched 
his  cheek  and  drew  blood,  which  flowed  rapidly,  so  that  in  a 
moment  his  collar  was  red  and  the  wristband  of  his  sleeve, 
where  he  had  held  his  hand  to  the  wound.  At  the  moment, 
one  saw  the  regard  which  the  real  people  had  for  this  quiet 
man.  He  had  refused  to  speak  ;  not  a  word  would  lie  say. 
But  that  stain  of  a  few  drops  of  blood  was  more  eloquent 
than  any  words.  "  Shame  !  Shame  !  "  cried  some  Stentor. 
"Shame  !  Shame  !"  echoed  all  the  well-meaning  men  in  the 
hall.  They  had  now  aery,  a  symbol,  and  a  purpose.  They 
rose  to  their  feet.  They  collared  and  dragged  off  one  and 
another  of  the  rioters.  The  fussy  sergeant  threw  open  some 
great  escape  doors  which  were  made  for  fires.  The  noisy 
part  of  the  assembly,  those  who  were  not  yet  in  the  grasp  of 


66  MY    FRIEND    THE    BOSS. 

anybody,  thought  best  to  disappear.  And  in  five  minutes 
the  great  hall  was  nearly  empty.  On  the  platform,  we  were 
well  satisfied  to  see  that  nobody  was  really  hurt,  and  in  the 
excitement  of  the  moment  we  all  agreed  that  things  had 
turned  better  than  we  had  feared. 

I  took  the  whole  thing  to  heart,  as  shoAving,  as  I  had  not 
guessed  before,  how  simply  a  man  might  make  himself,  and 
deserve  to  be,  really  an  idol  of  the  people. 


CHAPTER    XII. 

[INTERPOLATED   IN  MR.    MELLEN'S   MEMOIRS.] 

'T^HE  adventure  at  the  Temperance  meeting,  in  which  Mr. 
Mellen  played  a  part  so  important,  made  him,  naturally 
enough,  quite  a  hero  in  the  life  of  Tarn  worth,  for  a  few  days, 
and  especially  in  the  house  of  John  Fisher.  Mrs.  Fisher 
had  gone  comfortably  to  bed  before  the  gentlemen  came 
home  ;  nor  did  she  inquire  or  hear  anything  of  their  conflicts 
until  morning.  Then  she  was  quite  sure  that  she  had  ex 
pected  all  that  had  passed,  and  had  warned  every  one  that  it 
would  happen,  just  as  it  had  happened,  She  said  it  was 
always  so,  and  that  her  advice  was  always  rejected.  She 
also  said  that  if  she  had  had  the  slightest  idea  that  there 
would  have  been  any  danger,  she  should  have  ordered  her 
own  carriage  and  should  have  bidden  Barney  drive  her 
through  the  crowd  to  the  front  of  the  entrance  of  the  hall, 


MY   FRIEND   THE    BOSS.  67 

where  she  should  have  herself  addressed  the  people.  And 
she  gave  what  the  reporters  would  have  called  a  sketch  of 
her  address.  She  also  said  that  if  they  had  not  stolen  away 
as  they  did,  she  should  have  insisted  on  going  with  them  to 
the  hall,  that  they  could  have  entered  early  and  taken  their 
seats  on  the  platform  before  the  mob  arrived  ;  and  she  sketch 
ed  another  speech,  which  she  would  have  delivered  before  the 
meeting,  and  which  would  have  prevented  all  the  difficulties 
which  followed.  At  different  periods  in  the  narrative  at 
breakfast,  she  offered  other  suggestions  equally  consistent, 
and  equally  confused.  They  threw  Mr.  Mellen  out  a  little, 
and  he  found  it  rather  difficult  to  meet  them.  But  all  the 
others  seemed  to  understand  that  all  this  was  "  pretty 
Fanny's  way,"  and  to  take  them  for  granted,  without  reply 
or  comment. 

So  far  was  Mrs. Fisher  justified  in  complaining,  as  she  al 
ways  did,  that  nobody  paid  any  attention  to  any  of  her  sug 
gestions. 

Mrs.  Grattan  and  Mary  Bell  were  both  up  and  eagerly 
waiting  for  the  returning  party.  John  Fisher  and  his  friend 
told  the  story,  in  varied  interruptions,  both  of  them,  of 
course,  a  good  deal  excited.  Mr.  Mellen  stood  this  supreme 
test  very  well.  He  had  really  kept  his  temper  through  the 
whole  scene,  and  had  shown  tact  and  spirit  in  playing  with 
his  persecutors.  But  he  told  his  part  of  the  tale  modestly, 
and  gave  full  credit  to  all  the  other  actors  on  his  side,  par 
ticularly  to  little  Stepney,  who  had  sailed  in  so  magnificent 
ly  and  had  come  out  so  well.  But  John  Fisher  did  not 
mean  to  have  his  friend's  light  hid  under  any  bushel.  He 
gave  him  full  credit  for  his  pluck  ;  he  let  the  ladies  under 
stand  the  full  extent  of  the  danger,  and  Mr.  Mellen  appeared 


68  MY    FRIEND    THE    BOSS. 

in  the  most  charming  character  of  all,  as  a  modest  hero, 
while  he  ate  the  oyster  soup  and  the  omelette  with  herbs 
which  the  care  of  the  housekeeper  had  provided. 

"  My  dear  Mrs.  Edwards,"  John  Fisher  had  said  to  that 
functionary,  "people  are  always  very  hungry  when  they 
have  been  speaking  to  mobs." 

The  reader  has  perhaps  suspected  Mr.  Mellen  had  not  been 
thrown,  day  by  day,  with  Mary  Bell,  as  one  who  was  large 
ly  under  instructions  in  this  Tarn  worth  life,  without  himself 
feeling  the  force  of  the  fascination  to  which  once  and  again 
he  alluded  in  his  papers.  It  would  be  queer  if  he  had  not 
felt  it.  He  had  knocked  about  the  world  a  good  deal,  and 
it  is  no  business  of  this  writer  to  tell  what  had  been  his  ex 
periences  in  the  society  of  women  before.  But  this  the 
reader  may  be  told,  that  he  had  never  so  far  lost  his  heart 
but  that  he  got  it  back  again.  He  had  never  married, 
though  he  believed  in  marriage.  He  was,  it  may  be  added, 
generally  liked  by  women  ;  he  talked  well  with  Avomen,  which 
means  that  he  recognized  their  good  sense  and  ability,  and 
did  not  treat  them  like  fools  ;  he  had  implicit  faith  in  women, 
and  held  the  highest  standard  as  to  what  a  woman  might  be 
and  what  she  should  not  be.  So  high  was  this  standard, 
indeed,  that  it  seemed  as  if  it  had  often  been  too  high 
for  the  women  whom  he  had  measured  by  it.  His  life, 
too,  had  been  to  some  extent  a  vagrant  life,  and  he 
had  not  often  had  the  chance  to  show  to  any  really  first-rate 
woman  how  much  of  a  man  he  was.  For  some  reason  or 
other,  in  brief,  when  Mr.  Mellen  met  Mary  Bell,  he  was 
neither  heart-touched  anywhere  else,  nor  engaged,  nor  mar 
ried.  A  man  may  be  heart-touched  who  is  not  engaged,  and, 
alas  !  a  man  who  is  not  heart-touched  may  be  engaged  or 


MY      FRIEND    THE    BOSS.  69 

may  be  married.  But  neither  of  these  things  could  be  said 
of  Mr.  Mellen. 

Up  to  the  event  at  the  Temperance  lecture,  Mr.  Mellen 
could  never  have  thought  that  Mary  Bell  took  any  more  in 
terest  in  him  than  she  might  in  any  other  guest  in  the  house  ; 
or,  indeed,  than  she  showed  for  many  of  the  other  gentlemen 
who  came  in  again  and  again  in  its  profuse  hospitality.  In 
deed,  he  had  permitted  himself  to  be  annoyed,  one  evening, 
because  Mr.  Rossiter  was  so  intimate  with  her,  or  because 
she  permitted  his  intimacy. 

But,  on  the  morning  after  the  "  adventure,"  as  they  came  to 
call  it,  Mr.  Mellen  found,  and  was  naturally  not  displeased 
to  find,  that  he  was  quite  a  hero  with  all  the  ladies.  They 
wanted  him  to  tell  the  story  again.  They  read  aloud  the 
newspaper  accounts  of  it,  and  compared  them  with  each  other. 
They  tried  to  make  him  say  he  had  not  slept  well,  and,  in 
deed,  beset  him  with  a  hundred  nameless  attentions  such  as 
shall  not  be  here  described,  but  which  are  the  fair  reward  of 
the  brave.  He  was  no  fool.  But  he  was  not  displeased  at  the 
good  fortune  which  had  given  him  such  regard,  where,  in  his 
heart,  he  knew  he  prized  it  most.  He  sat  talking  with  them 
in  the  comfortable  parlor,  where  every  one  liked  to  linger 
after  breakfast,  longer,  much  longer,  than  was  usual.  Then 
Mrs.  Fisher  bustled  off,  with  some  pretence  as  to  something 
disagreeable  which  she  was  to  do.  Cordelia  Grattan  good- 
naturedly  took  herself  out  of  the  way,  and  Mr.  Mellen 
promptly  followed  up  his  opportunity  by  asking  Miss  Bell  if 
she  would  not  let  him  take  her  to  drive.  There  had  been  some 
talk  of  a  drive,  that  he  might  see  the  water- fall  at  Newry  Gap. 

"Drive,  Mr.  Mellon?  Have  you  forgotten  to-day's  duties 
in  your  triumph  for  last  night's  success  ?  " 


70  MY   FRIEND   THE    BOSS. 

"  Duties !"  said  poor  Mr.  Mellen;"!  had  thought  my 
duties  were  all  done.  I  was  asked  to  make  a  speech,  and  I 
have  come  and  made  it,  as  far  as  my  audience  would  let  me  ; 
if,  indeed,  they  may  be  called  an  audience,  who  were  resolved 
not  to  listen. 

"No,  I  ought  really  to  go  away,  and  be  making  speeches 
at  Chicago,  and  at  Dunleith,  and  at  Cleveland,  and  at 
Turk's  Hollow.  But  I  am  quite  too  much  interested  in  your 
election,  and  I  have  told  Fisher  I  should  stay  and  see  who 
is  chosen  Alderman  from  the  Hill." 

"  Exactly,"  said  she,  "  I  heard  you  say  so.  And  do  you 
not  put  this  and  that  together  enough  to  see  that  the  laying  of 
the  corner-stone  has  its  part  also  in  the  election  ?  " 

"  Corner-stone  !     What  corner-stone?  " 

"  Mr.  Mellen,  you  will  never  understand  Tamworth. 
Here  I  have  been  instructing  you  and  instructing  you,  and 
you  are  so  shut  up  with  your  prohibition  and  license  that 
you  do  not  so  much  as  know  that  we  lay  the  corner-stone  for 
an  Art  Gallery  to-day.  Mr.  Fisher  is  Chairman  of  the 
Trustees.  Mrs.  Dolliber  and  Mrs.  Thurtlc  are  a  Committee 
of  ladies  to  procure  a  silver  trowel.  Cordelia  G rattan  has 
written  an  ode,  and  Dr.  Witherspoon  is  to  deliver  an  oration  ; 
and  after  all  you  ask  me  to  go  to  ride,  on  that  very  day,  to  see 
a  water-fall. 

"  This  is  your  interest  in  politics." 

"I  did  know,"  said  he,  rather  ruefully,  "  that  Mrs. 
G  rattan  had  written  an  ode.  I  helped  her  with  a  line  that 
was  limping.  I  did  know  that  Dr.  Witherspoon  was  to 
'  pronounce,'  as  he  said,  an  oration.  But  I  should  much 
prefer  to  go  to  drive  with  you.  And  as  to  all  this  taking 
place  to-day,  I  have  heard  no  time  fixed,  nor  have  I  expected 


MY    FRIEND    THE    BOSS.  71 

to.  All  that  I  know  in  this  house  is  that  they  always  do 
something,  and  that  the  something  is  always  what  you 
would  not  expect.  It  goes  without  saying,  that  it  is  differ 
ent  from  the  something  of  the  day  before." 

"  Be  warned,  then,  in  time.  At  noon  you  will  meet  at  the 
Art  Club  ;  in  full  dress,  too,  Mr.  Mellen.  And  then  a  pro 
cession  of  you  gentlemen  will  move,  as  the  newspapers 
say,  to  the  spot.  There  you  will  see  Mrs.  G  rattan  looking 
pale  from  anxiety,  and  you  will  not  see  me.  I  shall  be  hid 
den  among  the  contraltos  of  the  chorus  of  the  Jubal." 

Mr.  Mellen  declared  that  he  should  know  her  among  nine 
hundred  other  contraltos.  But  this  was  the  only  word  of 
gallantry  or  of  tenderness  he  had  any  chance  to  thrust  into 
the  conversation.  For,  as  she  spoke,  her  hand  was  on  the 
door. 

It  seemed  but  fair  to  give  the  reader  a  hint  of  what  does 
not  appear  in  his  own  language  in  his  memoirs,  that  just  at 
this  time,  when  accident  had  made  him  a  bit  of  a  hero,  Mr. 
Mellen  made  sure  that  Mary  Bell  was  the  noblest  woman 
and  the  loveliest  in  the  world,  and  determined  to  tell  her  so. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

[jm.    MELLEN    RESUMES.] 

A  FTER  we  had  been  sufficiently  questioned,  pitied  and 
praised,  the  morning  after  our  Temperance  conflict,  it 
proved  that  all  more  agreeable  and  private  enterprises  must 
be  set  aside,  for  that  day  at  least,  while  we  laid  the 
corner-stone  of  the  "Academy  of  Fine  Art."  The  estab 
lishment  of  this  Academy,  as  I  found  out,  had  been  a  favor 
ite  enterprise  now  for  a  year  or  two  in  Tarn  worth,  and  all 


72  MY   FRIEND    THE    BOSS. 

our  household  was  committed.  The  corner-stone  must  be 
laid  of  course,  for  there  could  not  be  an  Academy  without  a 
corner.  And  the  affair  was  so  important  that  the  Mayor 
and  Aldermen  and  all  officials  were  to  join.  The  school 
regiment  was  to  parade,  and  a  general  holiday  had  been 
given.  I  found  that  even  at  the  mills  they  would  shut  down 
at  twelve  o'clock  for  the  day. 

I  was  by  no  means  sure  whether  my  presence  would  add 
to  the  hilarity  of  the  occasion.  For  it  was  quite  certain  that 
there  were  eggs  and  ruta-bagas  left  in  Tamworth,  and  if  any 
of  my  friends  of  last  night's  audience  happened  to  recognize 
their  target,  and  begin  on  another  course  of  projectiles,  it 
might  be  disagreeable  to  my  neighbors,  unless  the  marks 
manship  were  better  by  day  than  by  night.  But  no  one  else 
intimated  any  doubts  as  to  my  going  ;  indeed,  it  seemed  tak 
en  for  granted  that  I  should  go.  The  ceremony  would 
be  long.  We  had  an  early  lunch,  and  hurried  down  to  be  at 
the  Athenteum  Hall  at  noon.  And  I  may  as  well  say,  now 
and  here,  that  neither  egg  nor  turnip  disturbed  the  solemnities 
of  the  day.  The  rowdies  of  the  night  before  took  no  in 
terest  in  this  occasion. 

At  the  Athenreum  Hall  I  found  all  the  magnates  of  the 
town.  The  Mayor  and  Aldermen,  and  Common  Council, 
and  School  Committee  were  there,  ninety-nine  different 
people  chosen  to  executive  business,  in  which  they  were  to 
oversee  the  expenditure  of  three  or  four  million  dollars.  A 
railway  or  a  factory,  with  the  same  annual  expense,  would 
have  been  owned  perhaps  by  a  thousand  people,  but  they 
would  take  care  not  to  have  more  than  four  or  five  responsible 
directors. 

This  was  the  remark  John  Fisher  made  to  me,  as  he 


MY    FKIENL)    THE    BOSS.  73 

looked  round  to  see  which  of  the  City  Government  I  should 
best  like  to  know. 

I  was  amused  to  see  that,  literally,  he  knew  every  man  in 
the  room.  He  shook  hands  with  every  one,  and  called  each 
correctly  by  name. 

"  We  are  in  full  force,  Mr.  Mayor,"  he  said. 

"Yes.  Everybody  is  interested.  Most  of  them  think 
they  are  the  founders  of  the  Academy  ;  that  is  well." 

"The  more  founders,  the  better,  if  they  will  not  forget  that 
founders  must  maintain.  How  does  the  fund  stand?  " 

And  then  the  Mayor,  in  rather  a  lower  tone,  began  to  tell 
him  who  had  been  written  to,  and  who  had  answered. 
There  was  a  son  of  the  town  who  had  lately  had  new  views 
on  religion,  which  had  impelled  him  to  go  and  establish  a 
sheep  walk  in  Montana,  where  his  late  father  had  a  great 
silver  mine.  It  had  been  hoped  that,  if  he  were  "  properly 
approached,"  he  might  contribute  fifty  thousand  dollars  to 
the  fund  for  the  Academy.  But  it  was  clear  from  the  way 
in  Avhich  the  Mayor  shook  his  head,  and  put  his  finger  to  his 
forehead,  that  he  feared  that  this  new  Mahomet,  on  his  sheep 
ranch,  had  not  wits  enough  left  to  sign  a  check,  even  if 
"proper  influence"  could  make  him  see  the  value  of  the 
Academy.  There  was  a  rich  widow  at  Munich,  preparing 
herself  to  paint  portraits.  She  also  had  been  "approached 
in  the  proper  direction,"  but  she  had  made  no  answer. 
Whether  Mr.  Lathers,  the  great  lumberman,  would  subscribe, 
also  seemed  doubtful.  If  the  Ranchman  proved  able  to  draw 
a  check,  it  seemed  certain  that  Lathers  would  wish  to  "go 
one  better."  But  if  the  Ranchman's  wits  failed  him  at  the 
critical  moment,  it  was  feared  that  Lathers  would  prove  in 
different  to  Fine  Art. 


74  NY   FRIEND    THE    BOSS. 

"In  short,"  said  John  Fisher,  "  it  is  the  old  story,  that 
nothing  succeeds  like  success " 

"  They  are  on  time,"  cried  a  bright  little  man,  whom  I 
had  seen  flying  about  everywhere,  and  who  was  clearly  a 
sort  of  Lord  High  Chamberlain  on  the  occasion. 

His  real  official  position  was  that  of  Clerk  of  Committees  ; 
his  duty  was  to  supply  brains  and  etiquette  both,  to  such 
persons  among  the  ninety-nine  governors  of  Tarn  worth,  as, 
by  any  accident,  found  themselves  destitute  of  either.  As  he 
spoke,  he  pointed  out  of  the  window,  where  a  light  column 
of  steam  showed  that  the  lightning  express  was  at  that 
moment  passing  the  viaduct  at  Kroom's  Hollow.  On  the 
lightning  express  were  the  Governor  and  staff,  who  were 
to  make  a  part  of  the  ceremonial  of  the  day.  In  fact,  as  I 
afterwards  found,  the  Governor  was  another  person  who 
thought  he  was  the  inventor  and  founder  of  the  Academy. 
The  Superintendent  of  Education,  who  came  with  him,  knew 
that  he  himself  Avas.  The  truth  was,  that  a  quiet  little  Mr. 
Mole,  a  second  cousin  of  the  Count  of  that  name,  who  fought 
Louis  Napoleon,  had  conceived  the  whole  plan.  He  came 
on  in  the  legislative  train,  and  as  the  "  exercises  "  went  on,  I 
had  a  good  deal  of  very  satisfactory  talk  with  him.  He  and 
John  Fisher  were  almost  the  only  men  in  the  company  who 
made  no  public  addresses  on  the  occasion. 

Ten  minutes  more  were  enough  to  bring  the  lightning  ex 
press  into  the  station,  to  transfer  the  Governor  and  suite  into 
their  carriages,  and  to  bring  them  to  us  ;  for  there  had 
been  no  guard  of  honor  at  the  platform,  nor  any  presenting 
arms.  The  Governor,  in  his  turn,  was  introduced  to  all  of 
the  Aldermen  and  to  the  members  of  the  Committee  of  Re 
ception,  all  of  whom  wore  sashes  of  pale  blue  silk.  The 


MY    FRIEND    THE    P.OSS.  75 

Lieutenant  Governor  and  the  military  gentlemen  of  the  staff 
were  also  introduced.  The  Governor  was  asked  if  he  would 
have  a  little  Orange-Phosphate,  and  he  and  the  other  gentle 
men  accepted.  They  had  traveled  two  hundred  and  seventy 
miles  since  they  breakfasted,  but  it  seemed  to  be  understood 
that  they  were  quite  ready  for  this  laborious  day,  without 
other  refreshment.  They  did  not  themselves  make  any 
difficulty  about  this. 

Accordingly,  in  a  few  minutes  more,  the  little  Clerk  of  Com 
mittees  announced  that  all  was  ready.  The  Governor  led  by 
the  Mayor,  the  Lieutenant  Governor  led  by  the  President 
of  the  Aldermen,  and  others  with  fit  escort,  filed  out  of  the 
hall,  and  we  gathered  on  the  elegant  portico  of  the  building. 
In  front  was  the  school  regiment,  of  a  thousand  or  more  boys. 
So  soon  as  the  Governor  appeared,  they  presented  arms, 
and  they  stood  at  "  present  "  while  the  rest  of  the  procession 
arranged  itself.  Mr.  Mole  and  I  were,  as  "  invited  guests," 
near  enough  to  the  Governor  to  hear  his  compliment  to  the 
Mayor. 

"  I  could  hardly  have  given  you  such  an  escort  for  a 
ceremony,  Mr.  Mayor,  without  a  '  special  act' ;  at  least,  I 
should  have  to  send  over  half  the  State  for  so  many  compa 
nies." 

"  \Ve  were  laughing  about  that,"  said  the  Mayor.  "  If 
the  President  were  here  he  has  under  his  orders  in  this  State 
one  one-legged  sergeant  at  Fort  Pike,  two  recruits  and  three 
Indian  scouts.  Your  Excellency,  1  suppose,  could  call  out 
by  courtesy  the  young  gentlemen  of  your  '  Governor's  guard.' 
Are  there  fifty  of  them,  all  told?  But  while  we  keep  up 
school  drill,  which  I  hope  may  be  always,  the  Mayor 
of  Tamworth  may  order  out  this  pretty  escort,  as  sure  that 


76  MY   FRIEND  THE    BOSS. 

they  will  appear  as  the  Czar  may  be  sure  of  the  Imperial 
Guard." 

And  again,  and  fortunately,  the  little  Clerk  of  Com 
mittees  was  satisfied,  and  permitted  us  to  move.  My  own 
belief  is  that  we  had  been  waiting  till  a  messenger  from  his 
wife  told  him  that  her  party  was  all  ready,  in  Seligman  and 
Kroom's  front  windows.  Then  came  the  joyful  "  Forward, 
march,"  and  we  ''proceeded,"  or  "proceshed,"  as  I  ob 
served  the  boys  called  our  movement,  to  the  open  region 
where  the  Academy  of  Fine  Art  was  to  stand.  It  is  in  the 
northwestern  part  of  the  city,  a  part  which  has  great  natural 
advantages,  I  am  told,  but  to  which  at  that  time  the  move 
ment  of  population  had  not  advanced.  "  Hold  their  lots  too 
high,"  said  Mr.  Mole,  who  walked  with  me.  But  another 
gentleman  afterwards  assured  me  that  the  difficulty  was  that 
the  lots  had  been  held  too  low  ;  that  the  only  way  to  sell  real 
estate  in  such  circumstances  is  to  convince  people  that  yon 
have  "the  very  best  article."  He  said  the  purchasers  did 
not  know  much  about  it  themselves,  and  had  not  often  an 
opinion  ;  that  they  wanted  to  go  where  other  people  Avent, 
and  that  you  must  hold  it  as  you  would  hold  a  Meissonier 
picture,  or  a  folio  Shakespere  at  a  round  price  and  a  high, 
when  they  would  all  rush  for  it  as  a  trout  jumps  at  a  fly 
just  above  the  water. 

However  this  may  be,  there  were  then  no  houses  in  the 
neighborhood  of  the  future  Academy.  The  most  pretentious 
building  was  a  large  platform,  on  which  the  Governor,  the 
Mayor,  the  Aldermen,  the  Trustees  and  the  invited  guests, 
alas,  Avere  elevated  above  the  level  of  the  prairie,  to  join  in 
the  ceremonial  and  to  be  observed  as  they  joined.  I  say 
"alas,"  because  I  was  one  of  the  three  or  four  persons  who 


MY"    FRIEND    THE    BOSS.  77 

were  invited,  having  no  official  right  to  be  present ;  and  thus 
I  AVUS  exposed  with  the  others  to  the  tenderness  of  a  north- 
Avest  Avind,  Avhich  Avas  tearing  its  Avay  across  from  the  North- 
ern  Rockies,  unbroken  by  any  of  those  palaces  which  Avillcurb 
such  a  Avind  more  or  less  when  the  proper  price  shall  have 
been  found  for  the  sale  of  those  matchless  sites  for  building. 
I  learned  the  next  day  how  foolish  I  Avas,  and  Avhat  I 
should  haA'e  done.  Hardly  had  Ave  begun  on  the  "  exer 
cises  "  of  the  occasion — just  at  the  moment,  in  fact,  when 
Dr.  Thursby  said,  "  Let  us  pray,"  a  sharp  crack  was  heard, 
and,  from  my  corner,  I  saw  the  Governor,  the  Lieutenant 
GoArernor,  the  military  staff  and  others,  Avho,  but  just  before, 
had  been  a  tall  human  line,  shielding  me  a  little  from  the 
Euroclydon  of  which  I  have  spoken — I  saAV  them,  I  say,  all 
descending  as  they  stood,  without  moving  a  muscle.  It 
was  just  as  one  sees  the  cloAvn  descend  at  the  theater.  It 
spoke  well  for  the  courage  of  these  men,  that  no  one  flinched, 
started  or  even  turned  pale.  They  went  doAvn  as  if  this 
Avere  a  part  of  the  ceremony,  and  as  if  they  had  been  fore 
warned  by  the  Clerk  of  Committees.  Dr.  Thursby  was  not 
so  used  to  facing  danger.  He  stopped  in  his  prayer.  The 
Mayor  opened  his  eyes,  and  said,  not  very  loudly,  "Will 
every  one  stand  still?"  Then  one  by  one  he  bade  gentle 
men  jump  off,  till  the  Governor  and  others  could  do  so  safe 
ly.  Then  a  hurried  investigation  was  made  by  the  Presi 
dent  of  the  Mechanics'  Association.  That  side  of  the  plat 
form  had  been  badly  built  and  had  given  Avay,  "that  Avas 
all,"  they  said.  The  Governor  priA'ately  told  me  afterwards 
that  he  Avished  that  Avhen  they  asked  him  again,  they  Avould  put 
the  Mayor  and  the  Aldermen  on  the  exposed  sides.  One 
or  tAvo  shores  of  timber  Avere  hastily  run  under  the  platform, 


78  MY   FRIEND   THE   BOSS. 

and  the  ceremony  went  on.  Again  Dr.  Thursby  began  his 
prayer,  and  the  printed  programme,  brief  in  this  part,  was 
followed  through. 

I  say  I  learned  by  this  experience  where  I  should  have 
been,  and  what  I  should  have  done.  For  I  noticed  the  next 
day  that  this  little  incident,  in  which  the  lives  of  four  or  five 
men  of  prominence  were  in  danger,  was  not  so  much  as  al 
luded  to  by  the  Argus-eyed  and  many -voiced  press  of  Tarn- 
worth.  I  asked  John  Fisher  if  the  managers  had  power 
enough  to  suppress  the  notice  of  a  failure  so  mortifying. 
"  Oh,  no  !  "  he  said,  "  you  do  not  think  those  reporters  were 
going  out  in  that  gale,  do  you?  They  had  the  printed 
programme,  and  knew  the  plan.  They  knew  the  wind  was 
stiff  and  cold,  and  while  we  Avere  laying  the  stone,  they  were 
all  writing  out  their  notes  in  the  hall  where  we  saw  them 
afterwards.  They  did  not  know  the  thing  happened.  Nobody 
knows  it,  except  you  and  I  and  two  or  three  hundred  people. 
And  if  you  had  known  how  to  be  comfortable,  you  would 
not  have  '  assisted.'  " 

"  But  you  see  I  mean,"  said  John,  "  that  while  you  are  at 
Tarn  worth  you  shall  see  all  there  is  to  be  seen." 

So,  with  very  short  ceremonial,  the  stone  was  laid.  The 
silver  trowel,  which  the  ladies  had  provided,  was  presented 
in  a  short  speech  by  their  spokesman,  who  was  a  man,  to  the 
Chairman  of  the  Committee  of  Arrangements.  The  chair 
man  in  another  speech  presented  it  to  the  Master  of  Cere 
monies.  In  another  speech  he  presented  it  to  the  President  of 
the  Board  of  Aldermen.  He  presented  it  to  the  Mayor  in 
another,  and  he  finally  gave  it  to  the  Governor.  The  Govern 
or  was  a  prompt  man,  who  had  carried  a  musket  at  Fort 
Donelson,  and  had  here  learned  the  advantage  of  doing 


MY    FRIEND    THE    BOSS.  79 

quickly,  with  few  words,  what  you  set  out  to  do.  He  nod 
ded  to  the  chief  Masonic  character  who  was  in  attendance, 
and  the  stone  was  pronounced  plumb  and  square,  almost  lit 
erally  in  what  the  native  proverb  calls  "  no  time." 

Then  we  were  able  to  "  proceed"  again  to  the  hall,  where 
"  the  address,"  as  the  dialect  of  our  time  calls  it,  was  to  be 
made.  People  speak  of  "  the  address,"  on  such  an  occasion  : 
of  "  the  oration,"  for  instance,  on  the  Fourth  of  July,  as  if 
it  were  always  the  same  oration.  They  say  Mr  Stokes 
delivered  "the  oration,"  as  if  it  had  been  kept  in  a  cage  since 
the  last  Fourth  of  July,  and,  on  this  anniversary,  he  let  it 
out  to  run  around  a  little  while.  So,  on  the  laying  of  the  cor 
ner-stone,  we  went  to  the  Mechanics'  Hall  that  we  might 
hear  "  the  address." 

And  here,  for  the  first  time,  I  found  out  where  the  singing 
was  to  be.  I  had  learned  that  the  ladies  at  our  house  were 
in  a  chorus  somewhere,  and  I  had  supposed  that  we  were  to 
find  them  on  the  ground.  But  so  soon  as  we  stood  in  that 
northwester,  I  saw  that  that  was  a  business  for  men  only, 
and  I  asked  Mr.  Mole,  my  companion,  vainly  about  the 
women.  So  soon  as  we  came  into  the  Mechanics'  Hall,  the 
mystery  was  solved.  The  Jubal  Society  was  in  full  force, 
with  a  chorus  of  four  hundred  voices.  A  delegation  even 
larger  from  the  public  schools  occupied  some  of  the  largest 
balconies,  and  I  was  told  that  they  were  to  sing  also,  and 
other  societies. 

All  through  this  ceremonial,  almost  endless,  I  had  been 
learning  more  and  more  where  and  how  the  enthusiasm  had 
been  roused,  which  made  all  the  people  of  Tamworth  give  up 
their  daily  occupation  and  create  (out  of  the  whole  cloth,  I  had 
been  tempted  to  say)  an  Autumn  Festival,  in  honor  of  this 


80  MY   FRIEND   THE    BOSS. 

"Academy  of  Fine  Art,"  which  was  still  to  be.  I  un 
derstood  better  and  better  every  hour  that  the  Germans  of  the 
town  had  set  their  hearts  upon  such  an  institution,  and  I 
could  see  how  prominent  they  were  in  the  arrangements  for 
carrying  it  through.  In  the  manufactories  of  every  sort,  it 
happened  almost  always  that  Germans  were  the  draftsmen. 
And,  as  it  happened,  there  went  out  from  Tamworth  a  great 
deal  of  work  which  needed  artistic  design  and  decoration. 
Their  enthusiasm  in  the  Academy  cause  had  been  enough  to 
call  out  all  the  musical  force,  in  which,  as  everywhere  in  the 
world,  they  were  such  skilful  leaders.  This  was  the  reason 
why  the  Jubals  and  the  Amphions,  and,  indeed,  all  the 
musical  societies  of  any  note,  were  present  at  our  festival. 

I  should  not  tell  the  history  of  it  in  such  detail,  but  that  I 
was  also  learning,  all  along,  more  and  more  of  the  place 
held  by  my  friend  Fisher  in  this  community.  I  had  noticed, 
in  the  morning,  that  when  the  fussy  little  Master  of  Ceremo 
nies  was  arranging  us  for  our  march,  he  was  conscious  that 
John  Fisher  "belonged"  somewhere,  though  he  did  not 
know  quite  how  to  express  it.  He  had  a  list  of  officials, 
but  John  Fisher  was  not  an  official.  From  this  list,  he 
called  off  Governor,  Mayor,  and  all  the  dignitaries. 
But,  of  a  sudden,  he  looked  at  it  with  a  certain  despair, 
and  then,  turning  promptly  to  my  friend,  he  said,  "  Mr. 
Fisher  comes  here,  with  Governor  Winterhalter !  "  Gov 
ernor  Winterhalter  being  the  most  distinguished  guest 
present,  the  chief  of  the  next  State.  Just  so  was  it  when 
we  were  modestly  arranging  ourselves  in  the  front  of  the 
bass-drums  on  the  great  platform  at  the  Mechanics'  Hall. 
We  were  all  trying  to  obey  the  parable  and  to  find  the  worst 
seats,  where  all  were  pretty  bad  if  one  thought  of  enjoying  the 


MY    FRIEND    THE    BOSS.  81 

music,  when  the  little  man,  seeing  a  chair  of  honor  immedi 
ately  next  our  own  Governor's,  looked  round  wildly  till  he 
saw  John  Fisher,  and  said  to  him  at  once,  "  Mr.  Fisher,  you 
are  to  come  here  ;  you  are  to  come  here.  This  is  your 
chair."  As  indeed  it  was.  So  soon  as  John  Fisher  came 
forward  to  it,  modestly,  the  assembly  recognized  him  and 
clapped  loudly  and  long,  showing  indeed  more  real  interest 
in  him  than  they  had  shown  in  the  more  formal,  courteous 
welcome  they  had  given  to  the  Governor. 

No  !  It  is  fortunately  not  the  business  of  this  story  to  tell 
what  the  Chairman  of  the  Committee  of  Arrangements  said 
to  that  mass  of  six  thousand  people,  nor  what  the  Mayor  said, 
nor  what  the  Governor  said,  nor  what  the  Chairman  of  the 
Building  Committee  said,  nor  the  President  of  the  Trustees, 
nor  ' '  the  Orator  of  the  day  "  when  at  the  last  he  ' '  delivered 
the  oration "  from  the  captivity  of  his  portfolio.  These 
words  of  wisdom,  are  they  not  written  in  the  Tamworth 
Chronicle  and  the  Tamivorth  Eecord  of  that  evening  and  the 
next  morning?  Nay,  were  not  enterprising  newsboys  sell 
ing  them  under  the  windows  before  the  overture  by  Wagner 
was  finished,  so  that,  in  a  sense,  that  captive  oration  was 
delivered  before  Dr.  Witherspoon  untied  the  ribbons  of  his 
portfolio  ? 

We  were  only  four  hours  and  a  half  in  the  hall.  After 
the  overture,  we  began  on  what  the  ungodly  would  call  a 
variety  entertainment,  sandwiching  our  music  and  addresses 
quite  evenly.  Between  two  speeches  Avould  come  a  "  Hymn 
written  for  the  occasion,"  or  an  "  Ode  written  for  the  occa 
sion,"  or  the  song  of  praise,  or  a  triumphal  chorus.  After 
the  oration  was  delivered,  and  the  manuscript  was  again 
confined  within  its  limits,  we  sang  "  America "  with  such 


82  MY  FRIEND   THE   BOSS. 

zeal  that  it  was  a  wonder  the  roof  did  not  rise.  Then  a 
benediction  was  pronounced  by  Dr.  Thursby,  and  then — 
"  Then,"  says  the  reader,  a  little  tired,  having,  indeed, 
been  turning  the  page  to  see  what  would  come  next,  "  then 
it  was  all  done  !  " 

Dear  reader,  this  shows  how  little  you  know  about  such 
things.  I  am  sure  you  skip  when  you  read  the  newspapers. 
The  celebration  was  by  no  means  ended.  The  real  celebra 
tion  was  just  now  to  begin.  The  speeches  we  had  been 
making  were  our  offering  on  the  throne  of  dignity  and 
decorum.  Now  we  were  to  celebrate  as  we  wanted  to. 

Fortunately  for  all  concerned,  the  raging  storm  of  the 
morning  had  blown  itself  out.  By  some  divine  change  of 
a  center,  or  other  formality  known  to  the  Signal  Sergeants, 
the  wind  had  come  into  the  southwest,  and  was  breathing  on 
us  from  the  Indian's  heaven.  For  the  last  hour  of  that  deli 
cious  autumn  day,  we  stood  again  on  our  platform  of  the 
morning,  which  had  been  thoroughly  repaired  by  a  corps  of 
carpenters  while  we  had  been  singing  and  speaking  and 
listening.  And  now  there  passed  by  jolly  companies  of 
tradesmen,  each  with  the  devices  of  their  craft,  to  lay 
flowers  on  the  stone  ;  companies  of  scholars,  companies  of 
singers,  all  sorts  of  companies.  All  this  had  been  planned 
and  executed,  one  could  see  in  a  minute,  by  German  ingenu 
ity.  I  felt  as  if  I  were  in  Antwerp,  by  the  side  of  my  grand 
mother's  great- great-grandfather,  after  some  splendid  victory. 
Children  prettily  dressed  in  fancy  costumes,  jolly  blacksmiths, 
singing  as  they  marched,  trained  companies  representing 
this  or  that  triumph  of  the  Arts,  passed  by  in  rapid 
succession.  And  from  each,  without  the  "march  past" 
being  stopped,  would  run  forward  a  pretty  girl,  or  a  fine  boy, 


MY    FRIEND    THE    BOSS.  83 

or  a  young  woman,  or  a  more  awkward  man,  with  a  wreath 
or  a  cross,  or  a  basket  of  flowers,  to  place  it  on  the  corner 
stone,  and  to  say,  "  I  pledge  the  interest  of  the  Girls' 
Friendly  Union,"  or  "  The  men  of  Kroom's  Hollow  will 
not  be  forgotton,"  or  "  The  children  promise  the  fathers  to 
maintain  what  they  begin,"  or  in  some  other  fashion  to  ex 
press  an  interest  in  that  to  wrhich  the  day  was  dedicat 
ed.  Beautiful  teams  of  horses,  in  one  case  eight  exquisite 
white  oxen,  dragged  along  great  platforms  on  which  were 
pretty  tableaux  repeating  some  of  the  great  pictures  of  the 
world.  I  have  never  lost  the  memory  of  a  Diana,  so  well- 
dressed,  playing  so  prettily  with  a  pet  fawn,  and  yet  with 
an  air  so  thoroughly  antique  and  Grecian  that  I  never  see 
the  cast  of  the  Diana  of  the  Louvre  without  recalling  that 
pretty  figure. 

And,  as  every  one  of  these  companies  passed,  its  enthusi 
astic  Marshal,  after  he  had  called  for  "three  cheers  for  the 
new  Academy,"  would  call  again  for  "three  more  for  John 
Fisher."  He  would  do  this  certainly,  whether  he  remember 
ed  the  Governor,  or  forgot  him.  And  the  cheers  for  my  mod 
est  friend,  John  Fisher,  always  came  "  with  a  will." 

I  had  hoped  that  I  might  have  the  pleasure  of  going 
home  with  Miss  Bell.  But,  when  the  fete  was  over,  she  was 
nowhere  to  be  seen.  Fisher  seemed  to  know  where  to  find 
tin-  other  Indies,  and  without  delay  we  took  up  Mrs.  Fisher 
and  Mrs.  G rattan,  and  the  rest  of  the  party.  As  it  happened, 
Mrs.  ( i  rattan  and  I  rode  home  together,  and  I  asked  her  about 
this  regular  tribute  to  John  Fisher.  "  Had  he  many 
Germans  in  his  employ  ?  "  1  said. 

"  Oh,  no  !  it  is  not  that,"  she  said.  "  It  is — well,  sim- 
l  it  is  that  he  deserves  it  Germans  ?  No  !  You  are 


84  MY   FRIEND   THE   BOSS. 

right  in  thinking  that  these  clubs  and  societies  have  been 
marshaled  so  prettily  by  Germans.  But  I  do  not  think  there 
are  many  Germans  in  his  mills.  No.  It  is  not  that.  It  is 
— well,  Mr.  Mellen,  it  is  that  he  helps  all  these  things  along. 
He  lends  a  hand,  as  you  Wadsworth  people  say.  If  a 
cricket  club  wants  to  put  up  a  pavilion,  he  subscribes.  If 
the  Wagner  people  want  some  new  instruments,  they  go  to 
him.  He  takes  an  interest ;  that  is  what  it  means.  They 
know  they  have  one  friend,  who  has  risen  from  the  ranks, 
and  who  has  not  forgotten  them." 


CHAPTER    XIV. 

"TWHERE  in  the  world  is  Mary  Bell?"  So  did  Mrs. 
Fisher  question  us,  as  we  sat  down  to  our  well- 
earned,  late  dinner.  "As  for  my  husband  I  never  expect 
him  ;  and  Mary  Bell  is  as  little  to  be  relied  on  as  he  is  ;  off 
there — it  is  lucky,  Mr.  Mellen,  that  there  is  one  person,  not 
above  vulgar  bread  and  butter,  in  this  house." 

The  truth  was,  so  far  as  I  had  seen  it  since  I  was  her 
guest,  that  Miss  Bell  had  been  present  at  every  meal,  at  the 
moment  the  company  assembled.  So  had  Mr.  Fisher  until 
to-day.J  This  evening  he  was  dining  with  the  Trustees 
of  the  Academy.  Mrs.  Fisher  herself  had  had  fully  half 
her  meals  in  her  own  room. 

But  this  was  only  her  piquant  way  of  speaking. 

We  had  scarcely  begun  our  dinner,    however,    when    a 
servant  came  in  and  called  me  out.     "A  young  woman  is  ' 
very  eager  to  see  you,  and  says  she  cannot  wait." 

Sure  enough,  I  found  in  the  hall  a  woman,  I  might  well 


MY   FRIEND    THE    BOSS.  85 

say  a  girl,  with  her  face  pale  and  marked  with  tears.  I  led 
her  into  a  room  on  one  side,  made  her  sit  down,  almost 
unwillingly,  and  said,  "  What  is  the  matter?  Why  do  you 
want  to  see  me  ?  " 

She  found  it  very  hard  to  answer.  She  sobbed  before 
she  did  answer.  "  I  am  so  sorry.  You  will  think  I  am 
crazy.  But,  indeed — I  know  I  ought  to  come — I  wanted, 
you  know.  No,  you  do  not  know — I  asked  for  Mr.  Fisher, 
and  he  is  not  in .  But  I  could  not  come  to-morrow — you  are 
his  friend?  " 

I  suppose  I  looked  uneasy,  as  these  incoherencies  ran  on. 
In  truth,  I  thought  she  was  crazy. 

She  laughed,  in  a  wild  way.  "  You  think  I  am  crazy. 
No,  no.  I  will  tell  you."  Then  in  a  perfectly  distinct  and 
business-like  way  she  said,  "Tell  Mr.  Fisher  that  he  must 
not  go  to  the  rtitifi cation  meeting  Thursday.  The  plan  is  all 
made  that  he  shall  be  put  to  shame  to  his  face.  I  am  so 
sorry,  but  my  husband  is  in  the  plan.  And  Mr.  AVilliam 
Salter  is  to  make  a  speech,  and  tell  all  about  the  necklace !  " 

i  was  now  sure  she  was  crazy.  But  I  said,  "Necklace! 
What  necklace?" 

"  Do  you  tell  Mr.  Fisher  what  I  tell  you  to  tell  him,  that 
William  Salter  will  tell  the  people  all  about  the  necklace. 
Mr.  Fisher  will  know." 

And  with  that  she  was  gone. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

/\  S  the  election  drew  nearer  and  nearer,  1  found  myself  more 

and  more  interested  in  it,  although  as  a  stranger  I  could 

not  interfere  much  with  the  various  plans  which  were  discussed 


86  MY   FRIEND   THE   BOSS. 

around  me,  and  would  not  indeed,  if  I  could.  My  time 
never  hung  heavy.  Thanks  to  my  friend  the  Boss,  and  to 
public  spirit  like  his,  which  I  found  was  a  general  matter  in 
Tamworth,  it  was  a  place  where  a  stranger  could  live  for 
three  weeks,  and  yet  not  end  those  weeks  by  suicide.  The 
people  were  hard  at  work,  but  were  social.  After  I  became 
acquainted  among  them  I  found  I  could  make  a  visit  with 
out  exciting  the  suspicion  of  the  servant-girl  who  took  my 
card  to  her  mistress.  She  did  not  seem  to  think  I  came  for 
the  parlor  clock  or  the  spoons,  as  they  do  seem  to  think  in 
most  of  the  cities  to  which  my  vagrant  life  tempts  me.  They  do 
not  run  to  club  houses  in  Tamworth,  as  in  some  other  places 
I  know.  Clubs  there  are,  unnumbered  and  innumerable. 
But  what  with  galleries,  reading-rooms,  libraries,  museums, 
"  exchanges  of  literature,"  "  exchanges  of  art,"  and  the  rest, 
there  are  a  plenty  of  "  loafing  places,"  if  one  may  use  the 
vernacular.  Now  a  "loafing  place"  is  what  a  stranger 
most  needs. 

There  was  a  good-natured  fellow  named  Sturgeon  (if  I 
might  use  the  vernacular  again  so  soon,  I  should  say  he  was 
Yankee  "  clever"),  who  had  opened  a  house  of  accommoda 
tion,  which  had  many  imitations.  But  his.  was  the  original 
"  Saint's  Rest."  That  was  its  name  in  gold  letters  over  the 
door.  I  need  hardly  say  that  John  Fisher  had  furnished 
him  the  funds  for  a  beginning,  but  the  success  of  the  enterprise 
had  long  ago  made  Sturgeon  independent,  and  he  had  re 
paid  John.  The  "  Saint's  Rest"  was  just  off  the  Main 
street,  on  one  of  those  narrow  cross  streets  which  trade 
avoids,  but  still  central.  Any  one  might  go  there.  So  you 
may  to  an  ordinary  hotel,  but  you  are  not  wanted  at  a 
regular  hotel,  unless  you  come  for  a  meal.  Here,  they 


MY   FRIEND    THE    BOSS.  87 

Avould  give  you  a  cup  of  coffee  or  a  slice  of  toast,  but  that 
was  not  what  they  were  for.  They  were  there,  and  the 
"  Saint's  Rest"  was  open,  that  you  might  have  a  "  loafing 
place." 

If  you  had  an  appointment  with  a  man  at  eleven ,  and  the 
clock  obstinately  announced  ten-thirty,  you  went  to  the 
"  Saint's  Rest, "  paid  ten  cents  as. you  entered,  and  then 
Avere  free  of  the  lower  stories  of  the  house — indeed,  of  almost 
all  of  it.  There  was  a  great  newspaper  room  ;  there  was  a 
great  room  full  of  novels  and  magazines.  They  took  seventy- 
nine  copies  of  the  first  number  of  Lend  a  Hand.  There  were 
writing-desks,  with  paper,  pens  and  ink.  There  were  di 
rectories  and  cyclopaedias  and  telegraph  blanks.  There  were 
long,  deep  sofas,  if  a  man  wanted  his  nap.  There  were 
smoking-rooms.  It  was  in  fact  a  club,  where  you  chose 
yourself  and  expelled  yourself,  and  in  which  there  was  no 
assessment  after  you  paid  the  initiation  fee.  This  fee,  as  I 
said,  was  ten  cents.  You  paid  it  at  the  door,  and  went  in. 
At  the  end  of  an  hour,  a  boy  found  you  and  asked  you  for  an 
other  ten  cents,  if  you  wanted  to  stay  another  hour.  Prac 
tically  you  never  did  want  to.  No  one  ever  wants  to  stay 
in  such  a  place  more  than  an  hour.  But  he  may  want  very 
much  to  stay  in  such  a  place  fifteen  minutes,  when  there  is 
no  such  place  at  hand. 

Sturgeon  established  the  "  Saint's  Rest"  with  such  suc 
cess,  that  six  or  eight  other  Sturgeons  of  different  names 
followed  his  example.  He  did  a  very  good  business,  enlarg 
ed  his  house  by  adding  all  the  neighboring  houses — never 
rebuilt  it — so  that  it  had  all  the  coziness  of  home  house 
building,  and  often,  as  he  told  me,  he  received  a  thousand 
people  a  day  there.  Now  that  I  recur  to  it,  I  suppose  the 


OO  MY    FRIEND    THE    BOSS. 

convenience  of  such  places  may  have  been  the  reason  why 
there  were  so  few  other  club-houses  in  Tamworth. 

If  you  think  of  it,  a  "  club-house  "  is  a  hotel  kept  by  a 
committee  of  gentlemen  who  were  never  trained  to  the 
business  of  hotel-keeping.  And  its  first  rules  are  directed 
to  the  question  how  it  can  keep  out  the  people  who  would 
like  to  come  in. 

For  John  Fisher  himself,  his  comfortable  and  pretty  office 
at  the  works  was  his  club-house,  and  there  you  might  often 
meet  agreeable  people  not  too  busy.  He  left  us,  as  had 
been  said,  soon  after  breakfast  every  clay,  and  we  were  then 
left  to  our  own  devices.  Not  long  after  the  laying  of  the 
corner-stone,  I  found  one  day  that  there  was  no  drive  in 
prospect,  or  other  morning  plan  which  gave  me  an  excuse 
for  waiting  on  Miss  Bell's  movements  or  Mrs.  Grattan's, 
and  I  accordingly  started  alone  to  walk  down  town.  I  had 
hardly  passed  into  the  street,  from  the  avenue,  when  Miss 
Bell  overtook  me,  in  the  carriage  which  she  always  used, 
and  she  bade  the  coachman  stop  and  ask  me  if  she  might 
not  take  me  down. 

"Or  are  you  walking  for  pleasure?"  she  asked,  laughing, 
as  I  took  my  seat  gladly,  and  shut  the  door. 

I  told  her  that  I  should  be  glad  to  take  my  exercise  at  some 
other  time.  If  I  had  dared  I  should  have  said  something 
which  would  have  been  absolutely  true,  as  to  the  pleasure 
she  gave  me.  But,  with  this  woman,  one  avoided  by  instinct 
all  the  conventional  pretences,  and  I  was  therefore,  in  this 
case,  afraid  to  tell  the  truth.  I  did  say  that  to  give  the 
traveler  "  a  lift"  seemed  to  be  a  work  of  mercy,  which  in 
modern  life  belongs  with  feeding  the  hungry  and  giving  clothes 
to  the  naked. 


MY    FRIEND    THE    BOSS.  89 

"  Which  is,  as  it  happens,  just  what  I  am  starting  upon," 
she  said  ;  "  and  unless  you  are  in  a  hurry,  I  shall  make  you 
stop  at  the  Diet  Kitchen.  If  you  are  in  a  hurry,  you  must 
do  as  the  canal-boat  people  do." 

"  I  must  go  afoot?  "  said  I. 

"  Yes.  But  I  will  not  keep  you  long."  Then  she  told, 
briefly,  of  the  suffering  in  a  family  which  the  Charity 
Organization  of  Tarn  worth  entrusted  to  her.  ' '  I  am  afraid 
the  battle  is  fought,  though,  "  she  said.  "  All  we  can  do 
now  is  to  bind  up  the  wounds  and  retreat  with  honor." 

I  was  glad  enough  to  see  the  Diet  Kitchen,  a  perfectly 
neat  and  well-organized  bureau,  occupying  the  ground  floor 
of  a  house  on  a  cross  street.  The  attendants  were  all  ladies, 
many  of  whom  I  had  met  at  John  Fisher's  music  parties, 
whist  parties,  or  dinner  parties.  This  was  the  day  of  week 
ly  service,  chosen  by  these  particular  people,  and  I  think  no 
single  detail  of  this  ministry  for  the  sick  was  left  by  them  to 
any  hired  hands.  The  gift  was  Love  from  the  beginning  to 
the  end. 

Miss  Bell  took  what  she  wanted  for  her  patient,  giving 
me  the  chance  to  carry  to  the  carriage  this  basket  and  that 
can,  gave  the  coachman  her  direction,  and  we  started  again. 
But  this  time  we  were  to  stop  at  a  fruit  shop.  Just  at  that 
season  those  Western  cities  make  a  display  of  pomp,  crimson, 
scarlet,  topaz,  and  gold — of  color  and  glory  which  cannot 
be  named,  such  as  the  gorgeous  East  with  lavish  hand  can 
not  surpass,  if  indeed  it  can  rival.  Let  the  sated  traveler, 
who  is  tired  of  picture  galleries  and  has  "  done  "  every  cata 
logued  museum  in  the  world,  stay  over  a  train  some  day  in 
October  that  he  may  see  the  marvels  of  the  fruit  shops  of 
Rochester.  Two  or  three  more  baskets,  of  late  peaches,  of 


90  MY   FRIEND    THE    BOSS. 

early  pears,  and  of  grapes  in  season,  were  put  into  the  car 
riage  and  then  she  said  "Birnebaum's,"  and  the  carriage 
dived  into  the  canal  region  of  the  town.  Clearly  the  coach 
man  knew  where  he  was  going. 

"And  here  I  must  leave  you,  Mr.  Mellen,"  said  my 
companion.  "  Hiram  will  take  you  where  you  wish  to  go, 
and  come  back  for  me." 

But  I  begged  that  I  might  carry  the  baskets  in.  Perhaps 
I  might  be  of  use. 

"No  one  is  of  use,"  she  said  sadly.  "As  for  poor 
Birnebaum,  he  is  too  weak  to  see  any  one  whose  face  he 
does  not  know.  But  you  can,  of  course,  bring  in  the 
baskets.  Stay  with  your  horses,  Hiram.  Mr.  Mellen  will 
come  with  me." 

And  we  wentin  and  up  the  stairs.  A  two-story  house,  where 
the  poor  people  we  sought  occupied  the  upper  floor.  I  went 
with  one  set  of  baskets,  returned  to  the  carriage  for  the  fruit, 
and  waited  at  the  head  of  the  stairs  some  minutes  for  any 
one  to  guide  me  further. 

Miss  Bell  then  appeared  in  tears.  "  I  am  sorry  to  make 
you  wait,"  she  said.  "  But  it  is  at  the  very  end.  He  will 
not  live  an  hour.  I  did  not  suppose  all  was  so  nearly  over. 
And  his  poor  wife — and  his  mother " 

She  sat  on  the  window-seat,  in  the  narrow  entry  way. 
silent  for  a  moment,  and  I  saw  that  she  was  a  little  puzzled. 
Once  more  I  said,  "  Can  I  do  anything,  go  anywhere?" 

"Thank  you,"  she  said  in  a  half  unconscious  way,  and 
then  roused  herself.  "  Yes,  if  you  will.  I  was  going  to  ask 
John  to  send  me  a  messenger  boy.  But — but — if  you  will, 

Mr.  Mellen "  and  without  finishing  her  sentence  she 

wrote  on  a  leaf  of  her  diary,  tore  out  the  page,  and  folded  it 


MY   FRIEND    THE    BOSS.  91 

in  an  envelope  which  she  carried  with  her.  She  addressed 
this  in  pencil  and  gave  it  to  me. 

I  did  not  look  at  the  letter,  but  asked  her  where  I  should 
take  it. 

"•  He  is  at  the  Iroquois  Building,  the  number  is  73,  you 
will  find  it  on  the  note.  I  would  send  Hiram  but  he  must 
drop  you  at  the  Avenue.  He  goes  home  for  Cordelia  Grattan. 
You  might  say  at  lunch  that  we  may  be  here  all  day.  There 
is  everything  to  do."  And  then,  with  the  absent-minded 
ness  of  a  person  wholly  engrossed  in  one  affair,  she  left  me 
almost  abruptly,  without  saying  good-by,  and  went  back  into 
the  sick  room. 

I  knew  where  the  Iroquois  Block  was,  perfectly  well.  It 
was  a  great  columbarium  of  lawyers'  and  architects'  and 
doctors'  offices.  I  took  it  for  granted  that  the  note  she  gave 
me  was  to  some  doctor  who  had  been  in  attendance.  I  was 
not  likely  to  forget  any  word  she  had  spoken  to  me.  I 
hurried  to  the  place,  which  was,  perhaps,  a  mile  away.  I 
took  the  elevator  up,  and  bade  the  boy  drop  me  at  73. 

"  Third  door  on  the  right,"  said  the  boy,  after  Ave  paused 
on  our  flight  toward  heaven. 

I  came  to  the  door  to  read  on  the  sign,  "  George  Rossiter." 


CHAPTER   XVI. 

T    UNCH  proved  to  be  an  early  dinner.     And  early  dinner 

proved  to  be  a  dinner  party.     We  did  not  have  Cordelia 

Grattan  or  Miss  Bell,  as  she  had  warned  us.     But  we   did 

have  a  large  party  of  what  I  must  call  the  literary  people  of 


92  MY    FRIEND    THE    BOSS. 

Tarn  worth,  including  quite  a  scattering  from  the  college  and 
the  "  seminary,"  and  several  of  the  newspaper  men.  For 
ladies,  we  had  Mrs.  Stetson,  who  edited  the  children's  de 
partment  of  the  organ  of  the  Reformed  Covenanters  ;  Miss 
Porter,  who  was  the  head  of  a  successful  girls'  school  at 
Ponceau,  the  other  side  of  the  river  ;  a  Miss  Flinders,  whom 
no  one  explained  to  me,  and  a  German  lady  who  was  called 
the  Countess,  as  I  observed,  when  we  spoke  hehind  her 
back,  but  whom  one  addressed  as  Madame  Aristell.  We 
were  fourteen  without  our  own  two  ladies,  for  whom  excuses 
were  made.  I  soon  saw  that  I  and  the  Countess,  Dr.  Knapp, 
and  Mr.  Keane,  were  all  comparative  strangers,  and  that  there 
was  the  necessary  friction  before  the  party  could  warm  up. 
We  had  the  inevitable  talk  as  to  English  pronunciation  and 
American,  whether  one  says  "  either  "  or  "  either,"  "trait" 
or  "  tray,"  with  the  old  stories  about  "  nice  "  and  "  nasty," 
but  after  one  or  two  courses,  having  felt  each  other's  force 
and  parry,  we  were  more  at  ease  and  talk  became  free. 
Mrs.  Fisher,  when  there  was  the  slightest  risk  of  a  rut, 
would  upset  the  whole  carriage  by  one  of  her  rudenesses  or 
follies,  and  this  gave  us  no  bad  chance  to  begin  again. 

In  her  light  and  festive  way  she  told  us  that  she  was  de 
serted  by  her  two  ladies,  and  if  this  was  a  party  of  men 
with  no  women  who  could  cheer  it  up  it  was  no  fault  of  hers. 
This  was  agreeable  to  the  four  ladies  who  were  her  guests. 
Then  she  cheered  up  those  who  sat  around  her  by  an  account 
of  the  sufferings  of  the  Birnebaum  family,  and  an  account, 
drawn  from  imagination,  of  Mr.  Birnebaum's  death.  Then 
she  said  that  for  her  part  she  wished  she  were  with 
the  widow,  that  she  took  no  pleasure  but  in  ministering  to 
such  grief,  and  thst  she  could  not  understand  how  any  woman 


MY   FRIEND    THE    BOSS.  93 

could  stay  away  from  sucli  calls.  At  the  same  time  she 
seemed  able  to  join  in  conversation  with  the  gentleman  and 
lady  at  her  right  and  left,  and  to  trifle  with  the  provision 
which  Mrs.  Edwards  had  made  for  us.  She  afterwards, 
on  another  view  of  the  subject,  said  that  Cordelia  Grat- 
tan  and  Mary  Bell  were  both  impulsive  creatures,  govern 
ed  merely  by  passing  fancies  ;  that  their  absence  in  the  dis 
tressed  household  was  merely  a  whim  of  the  moment,  and 
that  any  hired  nurse  would  have  done  all  that  they  did,  vast 
ly  better. 

Mr.  Emerson  charges  us  to  read  no  book  till  it  has  been 
published  a  year.  He  says  that  so  many  books  are  wholly 
forgotten  before  the  year  is  over  that  one  thus  saves  a  great 
deal  of  time.  I  am  not  brave  enough  to  obey  him.  And  I 
thought  myself  well  up  in  the  current  literature.  But  these 
people  silenced  and  confounded  me.  They  looked  with  scorn 
on  any  one  who  had  not  digested  the  last  Fortnightly,  the 
lastBevue  and  the  last  biography,  it  being  at  that  moment  the 
life  of  the  Hessian  general  Rahl,  by  his  great  grandson's 
brother-in-law.  I  was  reminded  by  their  facility  of  the 
well-known  readiness  of  the  bright  Boston  circles.  The 
first  day  a  stranger  meets  them,  he  wonders  at  their  omni 
science.  Every  one  knows  the  Himalayan  passes.  Every 
one  discusses  Sanskrit  and  Prakrit.  Every  one  is  at  home 
in  the  Fiji  islands.  At  his  next  dinner  party  every  one 
discusses  Virgil's  meters,  and  Mad.  de  Stael's  grandfather, 
and  the  laws  of  enharmonics.  And  he  still  marvels  at  the 
wonders  of  culture.  Before  the  third  meeting,  however,  he 
has  found  out  that  they  all  read  Littell's  Living  Age  ;  he  also 
subscribes  and  then  is  as  bright  as  the  rest  of  them.  What 
interested  me  in  the  Tamworth  people  was  that  they  were 


94  MY   FRIEND   THE   BOSS. 

so  perfectly  up  to  time,  and  so  indifferent  about  questions 
which  had  been  on  the  carpet  a  year  ago.  As  the  Mackinaw 
editor  said  to  Dr.  Farrar,  "Dante  is  played  out." 

But  we  had  too  many  editors  and  too  many  people  of  con 
science  not  to  drift  round  to  the  very  latest  subject  and  most 
engrossing,  which  was  for  them,  as  for  the  rest  of  the  world, 
the  coming  election.  I  was  very  much  interested  to  see 
that  these  people  of  books,  even  the  editors  among  them, 
were  affected  by  the  political  crisis,  in  a  way  quite  different 
from  that  in  which  it  had  aroused  the  business  representa 
tives  of  the  wards,  or  from  that  in  which  my  Temperance 
friends  looked  at  it.  The  fact  that  in  the  neighboring  city 
of  Putnam,  "THEY,"  (always  "They,")  had  put  a  man  in, 
as  keeper  of  the  public  library,  who  did  not  know  a  line  of 
French  from  a  line  of  Italian,  exasperated  these  people 
twenty  times  as  much  as  would  the  fact  that,  in  the  same 
city  of  Putnam,  "  they  "  had  made  the  repairs  of  the  jail 
cost  forty-seven  thousand  dollars,  when  thirty  thousand 
would  have  built  a  new  jail.  And  when  I  intimated  to  my 
next  neighbor,  a  distinguished  man  of  letters  there,  that  the 
reason  why  they  needed  any  jail  in  Putnam,  which  was  not 
a  county  town,  was  that  they  chose  to  do  all  the  liquor 
retailing  for  the  rest  of  the  county,  I  saw  at  once  that  he 
counted  me  as  simply  a  fanatic  from  that  moment,  and  that 
there  was  no  great  use  in  talking  to  me,  except  for  civility. 
But  it  mattered  very  little  whether  he  talked  to  me  or  not, 
for  the  conversation  became  general,  and  we  all  rushed  pell- 
mell  into  the  details  of  the  canvass,  quite  as  eagerly  as  had 
the  evening  party  I  have  before  described,  though  not  with 
as  much  system.  If  there  ever  were  an  etiquette  which  de 
layed  talk  on  politics  till  the  ladies  left  the  table,  that  eti- 


MY   FRIEND    THE    BOSS.  95 

quette  was  violated  now.  No  one  was  more  eager  than  they 
were,  nor  any  one  more  amusing  than  Mrs.  Fisher. 

"I  tell  my  husband  that,  if  he  would  only  let  us  vote,  we 
would  settle  all  this  at  the  first  election.  To  begin  with,  we 
would  not  have  any  of  this  nonsense  about  aldermen  and 
common  council.  I  Avish  I  knew  the  difference.  I  believe 
there  is  none.  I  am  quite  sure  Mr.  Beltridge,  the  super 
intendent  of  our  Sunday-school,  told  me  he  was  a  council 
man,  and  then  when  I  wanted  him  to  pardon  Jane  Flaherty's 
husband  out  of  jail,  not  six  months  after',  Mr.  Fisher  told  me 
he  was  an  alderman,  and  had  nothing  to  do  with  it.  No, 
Mr.  Keane,  I  should  have  the  same  number  of  aldermen  as 
of  councilmen,  and  then  they  could  not  be  opposing  each 
other  as  they  do.  If  there  were  no  mayor  at  all  we  should 
get  on  a  great  deal  better.  But  I  tell  Mr.  Fisher  that  no 
woman,  who  knows  a  woman's  place,  can  think  for  a 
moment  of  voting,  etc.,  etc.,  etc.,"  poor  Mr.  Keane  being  the 
only  person  who  could  rightly  repeat  this  part  of  my  story. 

"But  the  news  of  the  day,"  said  Mr.  Visdon,  the  editor- 
in-chief  of  the  Chronicle^  "  is  that  Michael  Swinton  has  been 
appointed  one  of  the  Commissioners  to  the  International  Fair 
at  Antwerp.  His  commission  came  from  Washington  this 
morning.  He  means  to  accept,  and  so  the  question  as  to  the 
Seventh  Ward  must  be  fought  all  over  again." 

Let  us  hope  that  a  patient  reader  remembers  that  Michael 
Swinton  led  the  Street  in  its  conflict  with  the  Hill  in  that 
region. 

"Then  Col.  Stothers  will  walk  over,"  said  I,  hoping  to 
show  my  intelligence,  and  really,  as  usually  happens  when 
one  shows  off  his  intelligence,  showing  that  I  was  a  fool. 
The  editor  did  not  so  much  as  look  at  me,  nor  form  any  sort 


96  MY    FRIEND    THE    BOSS. 

of  reply.  Such  a  question  deserved  no  answer.  But  Pro 
fessor  Greene  said,  with  a  frightened  tenderness  for  me, 
"Oh  dear,  no!  Col.  Stothers  would  no  more  unite — 
imite — our  friends  there,  than  would — than  Avould — well, 
any  one  you  could  name." 

We  had  all  looked  at  John  Fisher  when  this  new  problem 
was  brought  up.  The  question  of  Alderman  in  Ward  Seven 
had  become  much  more  interesting — it  probably  was 
more  important — than  the  question  of  the  vote  for  Mayor, 
where,  indeed,  we  felt  quite  sure.  But,  if  we  lost  the 
Seventh  Ward,  the  whole  fabric  of  our  system  would  give  way. 

I  do  not  know  if  Mr.  Visdon  thought  that  his  news  would 
surprise  John  Fisher.  Perhaps  he  did.  For  it  was  certain 
that  Michael  Swinton  had  told  him,  in  secrecy,  that  he  re 
ceived  the  appointment,  just  an  hour  before,  without  even 
applying  for  it,  or  thinking  of  it,  and  that  at  that  time  no 
other  man  in  Tamworth  knew  it.  It  was  also  certain  that 
Fisher  had  just  come  from  the  mills  and  had  met  Visdon  on 
the  door-steps.  So  it  is  possible  Visdon  thought  that  he  had 
for  once,  a  bit  of  local  news  which  even  John  Fisher  did  not 
have. 

But,  if  Mr.  Visdon  had  known  what  Mr.  Fisher  told  me 
that  evening,  that  so  soon  as  the  difficulty  in  Ward  Seven 
took  place  he  had  himself  written  to  the  Secretary  of  State 5 
at  Washington,  to  ask  that  this  place  or  something  like  it 
might  be  given  to  Michael  Swinton,  which  would  take  him 
out  of  the  canvass  ;  if  Mr.  Visdon  had  known  that  three  or 
four  private  letters  had  passed  from  each  side,  and  that,  the 
morning  before,  Mr.  Fisher  had  a  long  despatch  in  cipher 
from  Washington,  I  think  he  would  not  have  supposed  that 
this  anecdote  took  John  Fisher  by  surprise. 


MY    FRIEND    THE    BOSS.  97 

"  I  knew  I  had  some  influence  in  Washington,"  said  John 
to  me  afterwards.  "Of  course  I  would  not  use  it  for  myself, 
but  for  the  public  I  would.  What  am  I  for?  If  Michael 
Swinton  spends  next  year  in  Antwerp  he  will  be  much  more 
fit  to  be  an  alderman  when  he  comes  home." 

At  the  table,  however,  the  talk  ran  fast  and  loud  as  to 
what  could  be  done  in  the  ward.  Col.  Stothers  would  never 
withdraw.  He  had  pledged  too  much  and  had  gone  too  deep. 
The  Hill  people  were  on  a  "  regular  bender."  It  was  their 
first  experiment  in  politics  in  many  years,  and  they  rather 
liked  it.  And  yet  there  was  as  little  chance  of  their  choosing 
Col.  Stothers  as  there  was  of  their  choosing  the  lead  statue 
of  Meriwether  Lewis,  which  stood  in  their  pretty  little  park. 

"  Such  a  shame  that  we  should  lose  Ward  Seven,"  said 
Miss  Flinders  to  me. 

John  Fisher  had  said  almost  nothing.  It  seemed  to  me 
that  he  had  been,  almost  with  affectation,  discussing  Lo 
hengrin  with  the  Countess,  who  was  on  his  right.  Miss 
Flinders  and  I  were  well  down  the  table  on  his  left.  It  was, 
therefore,  the  more  marked,  when  he,  as  if  he  heard  every 
word  which  everybody  said  at  his  own  table,  took  up  Miss 
Flinders  at  once  and  said  : 

"Do  not  be  distressed,  Miss  Flinders.  We  shall  not  lose 
Ward  Seven.  We  shall  carry  it  by  the  strongest  vote  we 
have  had  for  years.  All  your  funny  quarrel  there  has  done 
no  end  of  good.  Your  kid-gloved  friends  have  taught  us 
how  to  carry  on  a  canvass." 

"I  am  glad  they  have  taught  anybody  anything,"  said 
Miss  Flinders,  who  had  the  courage  of  her  convictions,  was, 
as  it  happened,  the  only  person  present  who  lived  in  the  ward, 
was  a  child  of  the  public,  a  perfect  lady,  and  .defied  the  Hill 


98  MY   FRIEND    THE    BOSS. 

people  and  all  their  elegant  buckram  and  precision.  "But 
I  should  be  glad  to  be  let  into  the  secret,  and  know  how  this 
is  to  be  done.  For  one,  I  want  to  vote.  I  do  not  agree  with 
Mrs.  Fisher." 

For  Mrs.  Fisher's  third  and  last  oracle  on  this  subject  had 
been  that  no  woman  should  ever  wish  to  vote,  and  that  no 
decent  woman  ever  said  she  did.  She  had  three  times  ex 
pressed  herself  on  the  other  side  of  the  same  subject  since 
dinner  began. 

"  You  do  not  suppose  that  Col.  Stothers  wants  to  stand, 
do  you?"  asked  John  Fisher,  quizzically. 

"I  know  he  is  no  coward,"  said  she,  doubting  to  what 
this  must  lead,  and  knowing  that  she  must  commit  herself  to 
nothing,  in  a  conflict  of  wits  with  him. 

"No  one  ever  thought  him  a  coward,"  said  John  seriously. 
"You  canal  people  may  laugh  at  him  as  you  choose,  he  is  a 
gentleman  born  and  bred.  He  loves  his  country  and  would 
die  for  it,  as  readily  as  on  the  day  when  he  was  the  first  man 
on  the  breastworks  at  Fort  Donelson.  He  would  with 
draw  this  moment,  if  he  were  here,  and  if  we  showed  him 
a  better  man." 

"A  better  man?  Yes,"  said  Keane,  "but  the  trouble  is  to 
persuade  him  and  the  Hill  that  we  have  found  a  better  man." 

"It  would  be  hard  to  name  a  better  man,  in  the  true 
sense,"  said  John  Fisher.  "  A  better  man  than  Col.  Stothers 
is  does  not  walk  this  earth,  if  by  goodness  you  mean  honor, 
truth,  generosity,  pluck  ;  yes,  and  modesty.  But  he  will  not  be 
trampled  on,  more  than  Michael  Swinton.  All  you  have  to 
do  is  to  show  him  a  candidate  -who  on  the  whole  knows  this 
city,  its  schools,  its  poorhouse,  its  roads,  its  people,  better  than 
he  does." 


MY   FRIEND   THE   BOSS.  99 

"  And  that  is  hard  to  find,"  said  Keane  again,  Keane  be 
ing  the  leader  of  a  coterie,  not  unlike  the  Hill  coterie,  in  Ward 
One,  where  they  had  things  all  their  own  way.  "Hard,  I 
mean,  in  Ward  Seven." 

Miss  Flinders's  eyes  were  flashing  fire.  She  was  about  to 
give  "that  little  Keane"  an  answer  which  would  have  en 
venomed  the  politics  of  the  town  for  years,  when  John  Fish 
er,  who  was  not  going  to  give  her  a  chance,  said  : 

"I  will  give  you  your  man.  And  Col.  Stothers  will  with 
draw  in  his  Favor,  and  all  the  Stothers  horses  will  work  all 
day  carrying  voters  to  the  polls  for  him.  And  Miss  Maud 
Flinders  will  wave  her  handkerchief  when  the  new  alderman 
is  cheered  in  the  evening  by  the  people  in  the  Hollow." 

"You  are  a  wizard,  Mr.  Fisher,"  she  said,  but  you  must 
wave  your  wand  before  I  believe.  Who  is  your  candidate  ?" 

"  Col.  Stothers's  next  door  neighbor  !" 

Miss  Flinders  dropped  the  orange  she  was  peeling. 

"  Dr.  Witherspoon  !  Dr.  Witherspoon  an  alderman  !  " 

"Precisely,"  said  Mr.  Fisher.  "Dr.  Witherspoon  an 
alderman.  Dr.  Witherspoon  knows  as  much  of  drainage  as 
he  knows  of  Greek,  and  that  is  to  say  he  knows  the  matter 
to  the  bottom ;  he  knows  men  by  instinct,  he  knows  the 
schools  of  Tarn  worth  as  no  supervisor  of  them  all  does,  he  is 
a  man  of  that  simplicity  and  that  honor  that  no  man  dares 
speak  of  fraud  within  a  mile  of  him.  He  is  liberal  to  every 
form  of  opinion,  and  he  has  the  courage  of  his  convictions. 
Now  what  are  we  to  have  aldermen  for,  as  Mrs.  Fisher  says, 
if  we  may  not  choose  such  a  man  as  that  when  we  need  him, 
or  Col.  Stothers  when  we  need  him?  " 

Thus  was  it,  I  think,  that  Dr.  Witherspoon  was  first  nomi- 


100  MY    FRIEND    THE    BOSS 

nated.  What  is  more,  I  believe  he  was  flattered  as  Avell  as 
surprised  when  he  heard  of  the  nomination. 

To  me,  as  we  sat  together  that  evening,  after  the  rest  of 
the  party  had  gone  away,  Fisher  opened  himself  rather  more 
confidentially  on  the  subject  of  local  politics  than  ever  before. 

I  rallied  him  a  little  on  the  nomination  of  Dr.  Witherspoon. 
"  Ah,  well,"  he  said,  "as  well  to  nominate  him  at  a  dinner 
party  as  a  caucus.  One  must  move  somewhere.  I  wanted 
Miss  Flinders,  who  is  a  power  '  in  the  street.'  to  have  the 
comfort  of  thinking  that  she  was  a  prominent  agent  in  his 
election,  as  she  will  be.  She  is  a  pillar  in  his  church,  and  a 
loyal  public-spirited  woman."  Then  he  told  me  what  I  have 
revealed  to  the  reader,  that  he  and  the  Secretary  of  State  to 
gether,  had  thought  our  honest  and  stubborn  friend,  Michael 
Swinton,  would  do  good  service  at  Antwerp,  and  that  it  was 
thus  that  a  vacancy  was  created  in  the  ticket  for  aldermen, 
which  must  be  instantly  filled. 

"  It  has  all  turned  out  very  well,"  he  said.  "  When  the 
canvass  began  those  people  would  no  more  have  let  us  have 
their  '  dear  Dr.  Witherspoon'  on  the  Board,  than  they  would 
have  burned  his  church  down  while  he  was  preaching. 
But  now  the  Greeks  were  at  their  doors,  literally.  They  had 
carried  their  ridiculous  Swinton-Stothers  quarrel  so  far  that 
they  were  within  a  week  of  choosing  the  master  of  a  grog 
shop  to  the  Board,  and  three  common  councilmen  of  his  own 
kidney.  They  will  begin  to  learn  that  no  man  is  too  good  for 
this  sort  of  service." 

I  asked  if  he  did  not  find  himself  annoyed  and  provoked  in 
the  midst  of  such  conflicts. 

"  Sometimes  annoyed,  never  provoked,  often  amused," 
said  he.  And  then  it  was  that  he  opened  his  confidence  to  me 


MY    FRIEND    T.HE    BOSS.  101 

a  little.  "  I  have  large  interests  in  this  town,"  he  said. 
"Pride  apart,  I  have  a  large  pecuniary  interest  in  having  it 
well  governed.  It  is  now  six  years  since  I  saw  that  decent 
people  were  deserting  the  business  of  governing  it.  That 
business  was  running  into  the  hands  of  adventurers,  bar 
tenders,  horse-jockeys,  gamblers,  what  you  call  ring-men. 
AVliy,  I  tried  to  choose  a  decent  school  committee.  I  found 
I  was  considered  as  interfering  with  the  prerogatives  of  a  set 
of  drunken  hounds  whom  I  would  not  speak  to  in  a  street 
car. 

"Well,  I  set  to  considering  this  thing.  I  said  to  myself, 
'  Suppose  I  had  a  fancy  for  yachting.  Or  suppose  I  wanted 
to  buy  folio  Shaksperes  and  original  Miltons.  Or  suppose  I 
had  taken  to  Corots,  and  Calarnes,and  Meissoniers,  like  your 
Mrs.  Morgan  or  Mr.  Vanderbilt.  How  much  should  I  gladly 
spend  a  year  in  that  business?  Why,  I  should  readily  spend 
a  hundred  thousand  dollars  the  first  year  for  my  yacht,  and  fifty 
thousand  a  year  afterwards.'  I  laid  aside  those  amounts  in 
my  plans  for  the  next  six  years.  Of  course  I  never  bought 
a  man  or  a  vote.  But  I  put  the  money  where  I  thought  it 
would  help  in  the  good  government  of  the  city.  I  put  it  in 
reading-rooms,  and  boys'  institutes,  and  music-clubs,  and 
libraries,  and  Sunday-schools,  and  galleries,  and  turner 
matches,  and  gymnasiums,  and  law-and-order  leagues,  and  a 
thousand  other  agencies  which  enthusiasts  are  constantly  in 
venting.  The  consequence  is  that  I  am  the  friend  of  the  en 
thusiasts  and  they  are  friends  of  mine. 

"And,  Mellen,  it  is  always  the  enthusiasts  who  win  in  the 
long  run,  if  they  have  a  man  of  sense  behind  them.  Nothing 
ever  succeeded  in  this  world,  which  had  not  a  crazy  man 
hitched  on  somewhere. 


102  MY   FRIEND   THE   BOSS. 

"That  was  the  first  consequence,  I  say.  The  second,  if 
you  ever  choose  to  go  into  the  same  line  of  business,  was  this. 
When  I  began,  my  taxes  in  this  city  were  sixteen  on  the 
thousand,  I  paid  sixteen  dollars  on  every  thousand  of  my 
assessment.  Now  I  pay  eight  on  the  thousand,  just  half 
what  it  was,  and  the  government  is  much  better  than  it  used 
to  be.  They  assess  me  for  about  two  millions.  So  I  save 
in  my  own  taxes  rather  more  than  a  hundred  and  fifty  thou 
sand  dollars  a  year.  Practically  it  costs  me  nothing  to  run 
my  yacht,  and  I  enjoy  the  fun  of  sailing  her." 


CHAPTER   XVII. 

T  SHOULD  have  said  that  I  knew  what  John  Fisher's 
life  was,  in  all  its  important  details,  after  I  had  been  in 
Tamworth  for  a  fortnight  of  such  experiences  as  I  have  de 
scribed.  But  one  of  those  coincidences  turned  up,  which 
are  frequent  enough  in  daily  life  and  on  the  stage,  but  which 
writers  who  are  not  dramatists  are  always  afraid  of,  which 
show  in  truth  how  small  the  world  is,  and  it  gave  me  quite 
a  new  glimpse  of  the  way  in  which  part  of  his  time  was 
taken. 

There  had  been  another  state  dinner  party  at  his  house. 
For  a  set  of  French  gentlemen  had  turned  up,  commissioned 
by  their  government  to  inquire  into  the  condition  of  prisons 
or  of  something,  and  they  had  letters  of  introduction  to  John 
Fisher,  and  so  we  had  them  to  dinner.  "We  were  full  for 
ward  in  the  ceremony,  but  I  was  doing  my  best  with  the 
particular  pundit  who  was  entrusted  to  me  on  one  side,  and 


MY    FRIEND    THE    BOSS.  103 

a  frightened  school  girl  on  the  other,  who  had  been  asked  be 
cause  the  pundits  had  been  hospitably  received  by  her  father 
in  Duluth.  Of  a  sudden,  one  of  the  servants  spoke  to  me 
and  gave  me  a  letter,  which  he  said  came  by  the  latest  de 
livery  and  was  marked,  rather  boldly,  "IMMEDIATE." 

I  was  afraid  of  bad  news  from  a  friend  who  was  ill,  and, 
as  soon  as  I  well  could,  opened  my  letter  to  find  that  I  need 
not  have  been  so  anxious.  But  Carmichael,  who  was  an 
old  friend  of  mine,  and  was  now  settled  down  in  Eden  ton, 
in  North  Carolina,  had  fallen  in  Avith  a  newspaper  giving  an 
account  of  our  terrible  railroad  accident,  at  the  Lookout  Sta 
tion,  the  day  of  the  wash-out.  In  the  account  was  the 
name  of  Mrs.  Winborn  among  the  killed,  and  the  name  of 
a  certain  Nathan  Winborn,  as  badly  wounded.  "Now  I 
see  by  the  same  paper  that  you  are  to  come  to  this  same 
Tamworth,"  so  Carmichael  went  on  ;  "  and  I  beg  you  to 
find  if  this  Mr  Winborn  is  my  old  Captain  in  the  llth  Ken 
tucky.  He  is  the  noblest  fellow  I  ever  knew,  if  he  is,  and 
you  must  bear  him  my  best  love,  and  see  if  you  can  do  any 
thing  for  him.  There  is  no  man  living,  whom  I  love  and 
honor  as  I  do  him." 

Of  course,  there  was  no  reason  why  I  should  feel  that 
this  commission  of  Carmichael's  must  be  attended  to  imme 
diately.  But  I  tell  all  this  story  about  the  dinner  simply  to 
explain  why  I  went  in  search  of  Col.  Winborn  when  I  did, 
and  how  the  coincidence  took  place  to  Avhich  I  referred. 
For,  after  dinner,  when  other  guests  came  in,  rather  tired, 
to  say  the  truth,  of  the  prisons,  and  of  talking  bad  French, 
I  thought  I  would  see  if  the  poor  man  were  anywhere  in  our 
part  of  the  town,  and  so  slipped  out,  unobserved,  into  the 
splendid  moonlight.  It  would  not  take  long  to  ride  into  the 


104  MY    FRIEND    THE    BOSS. 

city  on  a,  street-car,  and  there  I  could  determine  whether  I 
would  or  would  not  go  in  search  of  my  man.  Naturally,  I 
should  have  asked  advice  of  the  home  party.  But  they 
were  all  engaged  with  their  guests,  and  I  was  glad  to  paddle 
my  own  canoe. 

But  I  had  the  inevitable  drawbacks.  The  directory  re 
vealed  "  Nathan  Winborn,  53  Laurel,"  very  plainly.  Cer 
tainly,  there  could  not  be  in  the  world  many  people  of  that 
name.  But  I  saw,  with  a  certain  regret,  that  the  directory 
revealed  nothing  more.  Now  when  a  man's  name  is  in  the 
directory,  without  any  other  token  than  that  he  lives  some 
where,  you  know  that  he  is  either  very  high  on  the  ladder 
of  comfort  or  very  low.  He  is  so  grand  that  he  has  no  oc 
cupation  but  to  fret  over  his  investments,  in  which  case  that 
occupation  is  not  put  down,  for  reasons  not  known  to  me. 
Or  he  is  so  unfortunate  that  no  one  will  employ  him.  And 
then  you  feel  afraid  that  the  wolf  is  at  the  door.  In 
Nathan  Winborn's  case  the  ' '  Laurel  Street "  was  not  en 
couraging.  I  had  never  heard  of  Laurel  Street,  nor  had  the 
somewhat  cynical,  though  courteous  druggist's  clerk,  whose 
chained  directory  I  was  consulting.  I  asked  him,  timidly, 
if  he  knew  where  Laurel  Street  was,  and  his  reply  showed 
that  no  man,  well-to-do  in  the  world,  knew  or  cared.  This 
was  clear  from  the  tone  in  which  he  said,  "  No,  Sir  !"  No 
Laurel  streets  for  such  as  him. 

But  the  friendly  directory  revealed  again  that  Laurel 
Street  ran  from  173  Garfield  Street  across  to  99  Hancock 
Street.  And  these  streets  were  in  a  distant  suburb  of  the 
city.  I  doubted  whether  I  should  find  Nathan  Winborn 
that  evening.  The  courteous  clerk  told  me  what  line  of 
street-cars  I  was  to  take,  and  that  I  should  find  them  at  the 


MY    FRIEND    THE    BOSS.  105 

City  Hall.  At  the  City  Hall  it  proved  that  the  car  went  to 
Hanco.ck  Street  every  half  hour  when  the  Omaha  train  was 
not  late,  as  that  night  it  probably  was.  All  this  ended  by 
my  walking  a  mile,  taking  the  car  when  it  passed  me,  and 
then,  when  I  modestly  asked  to  be  dropped  at  Laurel  Street, 
I  was  told  with  surprise,  and  scorn  even,  that  I  should  have 
transferred  at  Baldwin's,  that  I  had  been  switched  off  and 
was  now  on  Grover  Street,  which  was  far  away  from  Gar- 
field  Street,  in  short,  that  the  best  thing  for  me,  was  to 
leave  the  car  at  once  and  walk  back  again,  all  which  I  did 
accordingly.  The  reader  will  not  wonder,  then,  that  it  was 
nearly  ten  o'clock  before  I  found  Nathan  Winborn's  house. 
I  had  determined  not  to  ring,  or  make  any  sign,  unless 
there  seemed  to  be  lights  below  stairs. 

Alas,  when  I  found  the  house,  No.  53,  my  presages,  grad 
ually  growing  more  doleful  and  more,  acquired  a  sad  cer 
tainty.  This  particular  Garfield,  and  Arthur,  and  Laurel 
suburb  was,  clearly  enough,  no  abode  of  splendor.  The 
people  were  not  at  the  top  o£  the  comfort  ladder.  No.  53 
was  a  little  "  five-room  house."  Even  in  the  moonlight  I 
could  see  that  it  had  but  little  paint,  and  it  might  have  been, 
probably  had  been,  moved  from  site  to  site  half-a-dozen 
times,  since  some  pioneer  erected  it,  as  various  streets  be 
came  more  and  more  grand,  and  its  place  in  them  had  been 
taken  by  more  substantial  homes.  In  all  the  rest  of  the 
street,  the  houses  were  as  dark  as  at  midnight.  Either  no 
body  else  lived  in  Laurel  Street,  or  they  were  all  early  peo 
ple,  who  would  not  waste  their  kerosene.  But  Nathan 
Winborn's  house  showed  a  light  from  every  window.  It 
must  be  fully  occupied  with  people  who  were  awake. 

After  a  moment's  hesitation,  therefore,  I  turned  the  little 


106  MY    FRIEND    THE    BOSS. 

crank  in  the  middle  of  the  door,  and  struck  the  little  gong 
on  the  other  side  within.  I  had  to  wait  a  full  minute  for  an 
answer.  Then  to  my  surprise,  as  the  door  was  flung  open, 
the  man  who  held  a  lamp  above  his  head  that  he  might  see 
his  late  visitor  was  John  Fisher  !  He  was  in  his  shirt 
sleeves. 

"  Is  it  you  ?"  he  said,  quick,  anxious,  and  in  a  low  tone. 
"  Nothing  wrong  at  home,  I  hope."  And  in  a  moment  I 
re-assured  him ;  told  him,  indeed,  that  I  had  left  home 
while  he  was  still  in  his  own  parlor,  and  that  I  had  been 
two  hours  in  coming.  "  No,"  I  said,  "  I  found  my  way  by 
the  directory  to 'inquire  about  this  poor  gentleman.  Was 
he  an  officer  in  a  Kentucky  regiment  in  the  war?" 

"  The  same,"  said  he,  in  the  low  voice  in  which  he  had 
spoken  before.  "•  Poor  fellow,  he  is  at  this  moment  dying 
in  his  room.  The  doctor  is  with  him,  and  says  it  cannot 
last  long.  But  I  have  sent  the  children  to  bed ;  those  are 
their  rooms  up-stairs  and  the  day-nurse  is  sleeping  here." 
He  pointed  to  the  rear  room*  which  opened  from  the  little 
passage  where  we  stood.  "I  cannot  ask  you  in,  you  see, 
unless,  indeed,  we  should  explore  the  kitchen.  If,  as  I 
suppose,  you  came  to  be  of  use  to  him,  I  am  afraid  there  is 
nothing  more  we  can  ask  you  to  do.  He  will  be  with  his 
wife  and  baby  before  morning.  The  baby,  you  know,  was 
crushed  with  her  mother." 

I  told  him  that  I  knew  nothing,  but  that  I  came  to  be  of 
use,  and,  if  it  were  of  any  use,  I  could  easily  spend  the  night 
there. 

".No, "said  John  Fisher,  perfectly  simply,  "he  knows 
me  ;  he  is  used  to  me.  We  will  not  make  any  change  to 
night.  This  is  my  night,  you  see.  But  do  not  let  us  stand 


MY    FRIEND    THE    BOSS.  107 

talking  here  ;  they  will  wonder  where  you  are,  at  home  ; 
and  I  will  show  you  a  shorter  way  than  you  came  by. 
Really,  really,  I  am  all  the  force  that  they  need.  You  see 
the  doctor  is  here,  and  will  be  here  till  midnight.  Stay,  I 
will  tell  him  I  am  going  with  you,  and  we  can  talk  as  we 
walk,  in  the  open  air. 

He  went  in,  for  a  moment,  to  the  dying  man's  room  ; 
came  back,  arid  said  he  was  sleeping  gently,  and  then  joined 
me  to  show  me  the  direct  way  home.  "  I  knew  nothing  of 
them,"  he  said  when  AVC  were  well  out  of  the  house,  "till 
the  evening  of  the  accident.  One  of  our  fellows,  Hastings, 
went  to  the  station  when  the  doctor's  train  came  in,  and 
brought  poor  Winborn  to  his  house.  For  Winborn  begged 
to  come  home.  It  would  have  been  better,  perhaps,  to  have 
taken  him  to  the  hospital ;  but  here  were  the  children,  three 
not  hurt  besides  the  two  that  were  ;  and  the  poor  fellow  has 
been  so  much  happier  to  have  them  where  he  could  see  them 
at  any  moment.  So  I  am  glad  that  Hastings  brought  him 
here.  We  had,  of  course,  all  the  force  which  you  could 
handle  in  that  little  cabin,  and  the  doctors  have  been  untir 
ing.  It  is  Lincoln  who  is  with  him  now." 

I  told  Mr.  Fisher  who  Carmichael  was,  and  repeated,  as 
wrell  as  I  could,  the  words  of  his  eager  letter.  He  had  said 
that  Nathan  "VVinborn  was  a  fellow-officer  and  one  of  the 
noblest  men  who  ever  lived.  He  had  written  to  me  to  be 
sure  that  he  might  know  what  had  befallen  his  friend. 
Then  I  asked,  imprudently  perhaps,  "  You  speak  of  Hast 
ings.  Do  I  know  him?  Who  is  he?  Who  are  'we'?" 

"  Oh  !"  he  replied,  with  an  instant's  hesitation,  "there 
is  a  little  knot  of  us  ;  there  are  ten  in  all,  who  have  kept  to 
gether  since  we  were  all  at  the  bench,  and  have  sometimes 


108  MY   FRIEND   THE    BOSS. 

counted  in  a  new  member  to  fill  up  a  gap.  We  have  found 
it  a  good  thing  to  take  the  care — well,  of  such  a  thing  as 
this,  when  it  comes  along,  for  ourselves  and  by  ourselves, 
without  making  any  fuss  about  it.  And  it  is  a  good  thing. 
I  am  very  glad  to  be  counted  in  still.  Some  things  cannot 
be  done  by  proxy ;  and  I  think  it  is  always  bad  for  a  man 
to  be  separated,  by  whatever  circumstances,  from  the  rank 
and  file,  from  all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men.  I  wish  I 
had  known  this  fine  Major  Winborn  before.  I  could  have 
been  of  use  to  him,  and  he  to  me.  But,  as  I  have  not 
known  him,  I  am  glad  to  take  care  of  him  here  in  person 
now  ;  glad  not  to  relegate  everybody  and  everything  to  some 
body  else  to  see  to.  I  was  glad  to  split  the  wood  for  his 
kitchen  fire,  and  to  draw  the  tea  which  he  wanted,  after  his 
own  army  fashion. 

"The  truth  is,  Mellen,  that  we  ought  never  to  lose  the 
touch  of  the  elbow,  even  if  it  happen,  as  things  come  and 
go,  that  you  are  serving  on  the  staff.  Do  you  remember — 
no  ;  you  were  not  with  us — that  fine  fellow,  Denny,  when 
we  Avere  all  drilling,  just  before  Sumpter?  I  have  never 
forgotten  one  of  his  saws  :  'A  man  never  knows  his  man 
ual  too  well.'  There  is  a  deal  in  it.  Those  boys  of  mine 
should  never  ride  a  horse,  if  they  could  not  saddle  him, 
bridle  him,  and  groom  him.  I  believe  I  ought  to  say  shoe 
him.  And  I  swear  to  you,  Mellen,  I  should  feel  cheap 
enough,  if  I  were  ever  laid  up  with  a  broken  leg,  with  a 
lot  of  women  bothering  about  me  to  take  care  of  me,  if  I 
had  not  found  some  chance  to  take  my  turn.  That  is  the 
reason  why  I  am  on  duty  to-night.  It  does  not  happen  often. 
But  I  should  be  very  loath  not  to  take  my  turn  with  the 
others.  I  cling  to  this  Ten,  of  the  old  days,  as  I  do  not  to 


MY    FRIEND    THE    BOSS.  109 

any  of  the  grander  clubs.     "When  it  is  my  turn,  as  it  is  to 
night,  I  am  glad  the  night  comes  round." 

And  he  bade  me  good-night,  and  went  back  to  close  poor 
Winborn's  eyes. 


CHAPTER     XVIII. 

T'XT'HEN  the  day  of  the  ratification  meeting  came,  I  had, 
of  course,  determined  to  go.  To  my  surprise,  Mrs. 
G rattan  and  Miss  Bell  insisted  on  going  also,  and  claimed 
my  escort,  which  I  was  very  willing  to  give.  The  woman 
whom  I  thought  crazy  had  bidden  me  tell  Mr.  Fisher  that 
William  Salter  would  tell  the  people  all  about  the  necklace. 
I  had  thought  she  might  be  crazy,  but  still  I  did  not  dare 
neglect  her  message.  I  had  fallen  into  the  habit  of  asking 
Miss  Bell's  advice  and  information,  when  Tarn  worth  life 
puzzled  me.  But  I  did  not  dare  do  that  now,  for  the  com 
munication  was  clearly  confidential. 

So  I  simply  told  John  Fisher,  after  waiting,  in  rather  a 
cowardly  way,  for  a  day  or  two,  that  a  woman  had  called 
me  out  to  say  that  he  must  not  go  to  the  ratification  meeting, 
for  that  William  Salter  Avould  make  a  speech  and  tell  the 
people  all  about  the  necklace. 

I  could  not  doubt  for  an  instant  but  he  was  annoyed. 
There  passed  over  his  face  a  shadow,  which  I  never  saw  but 
two  or  three  times.  And  I  never  wanted  to  see  it  again.  It 
expressed  utter  bitterness,  with  the  sense  of  failure,  and  per 
haps  a  sort  of  tired  look,  as  if  one  should  say  :  "  What  is 
the  use  of  fighting  any  longer?"  But  it  was  gone  in  the 
infinitesimal  of  a  second,  and  he  might  well  fancy  that  I  had 


110  MY    FRIEND    THE    BOSS. 

never  seen  it.  He  lifted  his  great  eyebrows  as  if  in  sur 
prise,  and  said:  "What  in  the  world  did  she  mean?" 
But  he  said  nothing  more.  And  I  knew  that  he  knew  Avhat 
she  meant,  and  that  the  subject,  whatever  it  was,  was  hate 
ful  to  him. 

When  Thursday  came,  Miss  Bell  loitered  in  the  breakfast- 
room,  as  we  left  it,  that  she  might  speak  to  me  alone.  It 
had  happened  that  I  had  had  no  chance  to  talk  with  her  by 
herself,  since  the  day  I  took  her  message  so  unconsciously 
to  George  Rossiter.  This  morning  she  said,  hurriedly,  and 
careful  that  we  should  not  be  overheard,  ' '  Do  you  know 
why  Mr.  Fisher  is  going  to  the  meeting  to-night,  the  ratifica 
tion  meeting?"  I  had  even  forgotten  it  was  Thursday. 
But  I  felt  guilty  at  the  moment,  as  one  does  when  he  has  a 
secret.  Of  course  if  he  were  going  I  knew  why.  But  I 
stumbled,  as  a  man  with  a  secret  does,  and  showed  her, 
merely  by  my  manner,  that  I  had  a  secret,  and  perhaps  that 
it  was  a  secret  that  I  did  not  understand.  I  said  :  "Is  he 
going?  I  did  not  know  it  till  you  told  me." 

"  He  is  going,"  said  she.  "He  is  determined  to  go. 
And  he  will  not  tell  me  why.  Yet  it  would  be  much  better 
that  he  should  not  go.  He  never  docs  go,  and  that  makes 
me  think — "  here  she  paused,  "  that  he  knows  he  ought  not 
to  go.  You  men  are  just  so  obstinate,"  she  said,  trying  to 
laugh,  but  with  her  eyes  full  of  tears,  which  made,  her  more 
charming  than  ever.  Then  she  looked  me  square  in  the  eye. 
"And  you  cannot  tell  me  why  he  goes." 

Of  course  I  could  tell  her ;  and,  whether  I  ought  to  tell 
her  or  no,  Mary  Bell  with  her  eyes  full  of  tears  could  have 
turned  me  round  her  finger.  1  told  her  what  the  crazy 
woman  had  said  to  me. 


MY    FRIEND    THE    BOSS.  Ill 

Her  only  answer  was  :  "I  was  afraid  it  was  that.  So 
William  Salter  is  to  make  the  speech.  Ungrateful  hound  !" 
Then,  as  if  it  were  another  subject,  "  Mr  Fisher  will  never 
take  me  with  him.  Will  you — " 

There  was  an  instant  when  I  was  exquisitely  happy  that 
she  had  asked  me  for  such  a  service,  but  she  made  no  pause 
at  that  instant,  nor  indeed  thought  that  I  was  fool  enough  to 
be  deceived.  She  simply  showed  me  what  a  fool  I  was  as 
she  finished  it. 

"  Take  me  and  Cordelia  Grattan  with  you.  We  cannot 
go  alone.  But  we  can  all  have  one  of  the  carriages." 
Carriages,  to  be  sure,  as  if  it  would  not  have  been  better  to 
have  walked  with  her  twenty  miles,  than  to  have  sailed  in 
Cleopatra's  barge  with  Cordelia  Grattan  and  her !  Why 
should  Cordelia  Grattan  and  her  millions  come  in  every 
where?  This  was  the  thought  which  passed  through  my 
mind.  But,  alas  !  it  met  the  other  thought  that,  if  we  Avcrc 
to  walk  to  the  meeting  alone,  George  Rossiter  might  over 
take  us. 

To  the  ratification  meeting  accordingly  we  went,  taking 
very  sedulous  care  that  John  Fisher  should  not  know  we 
were  going.  But,  indeed,  an  ominous  silence  hung  over  the 
whole  day,  which  was  quite  enough  to  show  me  that  there 
was  a  secret,  if  in  my  own  private  duty  I  had  not  known  it 
perfectly  well.  In  that  house,  of  all  the  houses  in  Tam- 
worth —  in  that  house,  where  every  preparation  for  the  elec 
tion  had  been  begun,  not  one  word  was  said  of  the  great 
meeting  which  virtually  crowned  the  work,  which  even  de 
cided  by  its  success  or  failure  how  the  work  was  to  end. 
We  made  our  arrangements  so  as  not  to  interfere  with  Mr. 
Fisher's,  and  about  this  there  proved  to  be  no  difficulty,  as 


112  MY   FRIEND    THE    BOSS. 

he  had  made  his  so  as  not  to  interfere  with  ours.  We  ar 
rived  at  the  hall  rather  early  and  so  had  tolerably  good  seats 
in  the  gallery,  which  was  reserved  for  ladies  and  their 
friends.  But  the  building  soon  filled  up,  and  was  crowded, 
except  on  the  platform,  before  any  person  appeared  there. 
To  my  disgust,  George  Rossiter  saw  us  from  below  and 
came  and  joined  us  where  we  sat,  quite  unconscious  that  I 
could  have  wrung  his  neck,  had  the  customs  of  society  and 
the  instructions  of  the  decalogue  permitted. 

A  good  band  was  playing  when  we  went  in,  and  continu 
ed  to  play  until  the  meeting  began.  But  I  do  not  think  any 
person  listened  for  an  instant  to  the  music.  It  filled  the 
office  of  music  well,  if  it  be  true  that  we  are  quite  uncon 
scious  of  the  best.  We  were  all  watching  to  see  who  was 
there,  and  wondering  if  this  or  that  person  were  not  there. 
Just  at  the  hour  appointed,  half-past  seven,  from  a  myste 
rious  side  passage,  the  committee  and  dignitaries  filed  in  up 
on  the  platform.  The  ladies  of  my  party  watched  them 
with  a  good  deal  of  feeling — now  of  admiration,  generally  of 
ridicule,  and  sometimes  of  scorn.  "  Little  John  Ryder  ;  he 
does.  Ward  III."  "Really,  Mary,  there  is  Theodore 
Gross !  Who  would  have  thought  it  ?  Buttons  at  the 
front.  Mary,  he  is  looking  for  you."  "  Col.  Stothers ! 
See  Col.  Stothers !  They  ought  to  cheer  Col.  Stothers." 
The  Colonel  had  not  been  at  a  ratification  meeting  since  the 
Town  Hall  was  built,  and  did  not  know  the  intricacies  of 
the  platform.  When  he  was  dragged  Avell  to  a  prominent 
seat  at  the  front,  the  audience,  sooner  of  course  than  the 
ladies,  took  the  idea,  and  cheered  him  vigorously.  lie 
had  earned  his  cheer  by  withdrawing  in  favor  of  Dr.  With- 
erspoon,  who  appeared  a  moment  after,  and  was  cordially 
received  in  his  turn. 


MY    FRIEND   THE   BOSS.  113 

All  this  time  the  band  was  playing  "  Hail  to  the  Chief," 
as  loud  as  it  could  play,  but  it  seemed  as  if  no  one,  except 
ing  a  dilettante  visitor  like  me,  knew  or  cared  that  they 
were  not  playing  the  "  Dead  March  in  Saul." 

Mr  Fordyce,  who  was  their  Member  of  Congress,  presid 
ed,  and  presided  very  well.  He  spoke  at  length  on  the  exi 
gency,  which  he  really  thought  to  be  of  the  utmost  importance 
to  the  people,  so  that  he  could  say  so  without  lying,  or  any 
rhetoric  analogous  to  lying.  He  said  that  on  another  occa 
sion  he  should  like  to  talk  to  them  on  national  politics,  and 
he  hoped  that  they  would  give  him  an  opportunity.  "  But 
not  to-night."  He  hoped  that  to-night  Democrats  and  Re 
publicans  and  Third  Party  Prohibitionists  or  First  Party 
Greenbackers  were  together  to  join  in  establishing  perma 
nently  the  good  government  of  Tamworth,  which  they  had 
only  partly  won  by  the  magnificent  victory  of  last  year. 
That  victory  had  been  welcomed  by  the  whole  country. 
Once  and  again  he  had  been  congratulated  on  it  in  Wash 
ington. 

At  this  point  in  Fordyce's  speech,  Mary  Bell  seized 
Cordelia  Grattan's  arm.  "There's  that  viper,  William 
Salter !" 

"  Where?"  said  the  other,  eagerly. 

"The  second  man  in  the  row  behind  him.  The  man 
with  something  red  in  his  button-hole.  I  wonder  the  earth 
doesn't  open  under  him." 

I  was  glad  to  be  thus  far  prepared  for  the  drama.  For 
dyce  was  going  on  with  his  explanation  of  last  year's  vic 
tory,  and  what  must  be  done  to  complete  it.  He  made  a 
very  good  picture  of  what  his  father  and  their  fathers  did, 
not  thirty  years  ago,  when  Tamworth  was  not  ;  Avhen  there 


114  MY   FRIEND   THE    BOSS. 

was  then  "only  a  possible  Tamworth,  a  Tamworth  of  the 
future  ;  and  for  its  present,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  only  a 
swamp  which  no  man  could  cross,  and  a  creek  which  no 
man  could  sail  in  and  a  tangle  of  cotton-wood  which  no  man 
could  see  through.  What  did  my  father  and  your  fathers 
do  then?  Did  they  array  themselves  in  two  camps,  because 
some  of  them  came  from  Europe  and  some  were  born  in 
America?  No!  They  hewed  at  the  same  tree,  and  they 
lugged  the  same  log.  Did  they  settle,  the  Democrats  on 
one  side  the  creek  and  the  Republicans  on  the  other  ?  No  ! 
My  father  split  shingles  for  a  man  whose  politics  he  hated, 
and  that  man  cooked  the  coon  which  they  both  ate  for  their 
dinner. 

"  And  I  will  not  ask,  gentlemen — and  ladies,  for  I  see 
we  are  honored  by  the  presence  of  ladies  ;  I  will  not  ask, 
Where  were  the  people  who  are  opposing  us  this  week?  1 
do  not  know.  I  know  they  were  not  here.  I  know  they 
were  not  honorably  building  up  the  best  interests  of  this 
place  or  of  any  place.  They  were  somewhere,  where  they 
did  not  learn  the  lesson  of  the  pioneer.  They  did  not  learn, 
and  they  do  not  know,  that  every  good  citizen  owes  his  first 
endeavor  to  the  town  he  lives  in,  that  it  may  be  wholesome, 
pure,  clean,  and  healthy  ;  that  it  may  be  a  pleasure  and  a 
blessing  to  live  in  it ;  that  its  children  and  youth  shall  not  be 
led  into  temptation  ;  that  its  men  and  women  shall  live  under 
equal  laws.  When  you  have  cared  for  this,  gentlemen  and 
ladies,  then,  and  not  till  then,  may  you  adorn  your  palaces 
and  improve  your  gardens,  may  you  take  the  luxury  of  your 
libraries,  and  the  recreation  of  your  music.  Your  h'rst  duty 
is  for  the  fair  and  pure  and  just  government  of  the  town  in 
which  you  live." 


MY   FRIEND    THE    BOSS.  115 

Mr.  Fordyce  had  struck  his  key-note  well.  Clipsham  fol 
lowed  him,  who  was,  as  it  happened,  a  special  favorite  at 
that  moment,  with  these  people.  He  had  just  returned  from 
his  wedding-tour.  There  was  some  banter,  which  I  did  not 
understand,  about  a  speech  he  should  have  made  the  year 
before,  which  he  had  made  in  the  wrong  place.  The  au 
dience  understood  it,  and  cheered  him  heartily  as  he  came 
forward.  His  speech,  like  Fordyce's,  was  on  the  general 
matter  of  the  importance  of  good  city  government.  A  man 
named  Jones  followed,  who  had  the  finally-revised  list  of 
the  School  Committee  and  of  the  Aldermen,  and  it  was  his 
business  to  explain  it  and  account  for  its  omissions.  He 
did  this  in  a  hemming  and  hawing  sort  of  way  from  differ 
ent  papers  he  had,  very  badly  arranged.  But  it  was  inter 
esting  to  see  that  his  speech  was  received  quite  as  cordially 
as  was  either  of  the  two  orations  Ave  had  heard.  Evidently 
he  was  a  man  whom  everybody  respected,  and  it  was  under 
stood  that  what  he  and  his  committee  had  to  say  was  not 
only  nearly  final  but  probably  right.  Evidently  also  some 
people  were  dissatisfied.  And  to  Mary  Bell's  terror  and 
Mrs.  Grattan's  they  began  to  ask  questions.  These  ladies 
thought  that  such  questions  were  ill-bred  and  rude,  and  I 
observed  that  they  always  considered  that  the  men  who  ask 
ed  them  were  morally  wrong,  and  wished  to  break  up  so 
ciety  from  its  foundations.  Women  arc  Monarchists  of 
nature.  They  only  try  the  wild  experiment  of  Democracy, 
as  the  brave  Peruvian  princes  mounted  on  Pizarro's  stray 
horses,  to  show  that  they  can  do  this  also.  I  tried,  without 
much  success,  to  re-assure  my  friends,  and  to  explain  that 
these  inquirers  had  their  rights  in  a  public  meeting,  and,  if 
such  questions  were  not  put  and  answered,  there  was  no  use 
in  our  being  there. 


116  MY   FRIEND    THE    BOSS. 

"  I  never  said  there  was  any  use  in  our  being  here,"  said 
Mary  Bell  rather  tartly.  "  I  never  thought  there  was. 
But,  as  the  meeting  was  to  be,  I  wanted  to  come."  Had 
Napoleon  governed  that  city,  by  the  simple  appointment  of 
a  Provost-marshal,  and  the  proclamation  of  martial  law, 
both  of  them,  at  the  outset,  would  not  have  been  displeased. 

A  "  Provost-marshal  "  is  a  ruler  of  a  city  who  does  what 
he  chooses,  and  "Martial  Law"  is  the  law  which  permits 
him  to  do  so. 

But  I  on  my  side  Avith  Mrs.  Grattan,  and  Mr.  Rossiter  on 
his  side  with  Miss  Bell,  explained  again,  as  well  as  we 
could,  that,  if  republican  government  meant  anything,  such 
interruptions  or  questions  were  not  only  to  be  permitted  but 
desired.  How  could  we  ratify  that  which  we  did  not  ex 
plain?  To  which  Mrs.  Grattan  said  in  reply,  "There 
should  be  some  one  to  say  what  shall  be  done  and  what  shall 
not  be  done.  That  was  the  way  my  grandmother  put  it,  or 
I  believe  it  was  hers.  It  was  in  George  the  King's  time, 
anyway."  To  which  all  I  could  say  was  that  her  grand 
mother's  mother  was  a  sad  Tory,  and  that  she  appeared  to  be 
another.  To  which  she  did  not  reply.  It  was  clear  enough 
that  the  people  on  the  platform  were  neither  discouraged 
nor  displeased.  When  a  demand  more  trenchant  than  usual 
was  put  in  form,  "Why  did  you  drop  Pasteboard  Tom  ?" 
you  would  see  an  intelligent  smile  pass  from  one  of  the 
dignitaries  to  another,  as  much  as  to  say :  "  I  told  you 
you  would  get  into  trouble  if  you  interfered  there."  But  the 
community  has  in  it  an  element  of  Kentucky  blood,  and,  as 
my  friend  the  Boss  had  told  me,  it  was  trained  both  to  the 
town  meeting  of  New  England  and  to  the  barbecue  of  Ken 
tucky,  blended  together  in  all  their  wild  and  native  frank- 


MY    FRIEND   THE    BOSS.  117 

ness.  It  was  interesting  and  edifying  to  me,  to  see  how 
simply  and  frankly  and  courageously  the  members  of  the 
final  committee  on  nomination  took  these  interpellations. 
They  were  never  taken  by  surprise.  Indeed,  they  almost 
courted  questions.  It  was  as  if  you  had  brought  five  "  catch 
ers  "  together  on  the  platform,  and  invited  all  the  "  pitchers  " 
of  the  town  to  try  their  hand  with  them.  The  moment  one 
reply  was  made  they  would  look  round,  almost  eagerly,  as 
if  to  court  another  question.  When  it  came,  the  man  who 
was  to  reply  knew  it  was  his  question,  and  did  not  hesitate 
an  instant.  Nor  did  any  one  else  interfere  with  him.  Thus, 
to  that  dangerous  question  about  Pasteboard  Tom : 

"Mr.  James  B.  Stimson,  of  Ward  III,  is  the  person  allud 
ed  to,  I  believe.  If  he  is  here,  he  will  tell  us  why  he  is 
called  'Pasteboard  Tom.'  I  do  not  myself  know.  I  do 
know  why  I  voted  against  him  in  committee  ;  and  I  suppose 
other  gentlemen  agreed  with  me.  He  was  absent  from  four 
meetings  of  the  Council  last  summer  without  a  pair.  He 
has  very  curious  views  on  the  pavement  of  N  Street,  for  he 
voted  for  it  after  Tibbies  bid  for  the  contract,  when  he  had 
voted  steadily  against  it  before.  I  thought,  if  he  wanted 
to  go  after  buffalo  again  this  summer,  he  had  better  go." 

Mr.  Stimson's  friend  had  taken  very  little  by  his  motion, 
for  this  answer  was  received  with  laughter  and  cheers.  But 
the  committee  was  not  always  so  fortunate. 

Quite  a  large  man,  dressed  much  more  carefully  than  the 
most,  stood  up  on  the  end  of  a  settee,  and  when  one  interpel 
lation  had  ended,  with  great  dignity  said  : 

"  Mr.  Chairman  " — 

All  other  interpellants  stopped  ;  there  was  a  hush,  and  then 
a  general  cry  of  "  Green  !  Green  !  Green  J" 


118  MY   FRIEND   THE    BOSS. 

The  chairman  recognized  Dr.  Green  with  great  courtesy. 

"  Many  of  the  oldest  residents  are  greatly  displeased  that 
the  name  of  our  esteemed  friend,  Silas  Backup,  is  dropped 
from  the  school  committee.  I  have  nothing  to  say  against 
the  very  able  names  on  the  list  put  into  my  hands.  They 
are  very  good  men.  But  Mr.  Backup  has  experience — long 
experience.  And  I  shall  vote  for  him.  Many  others  will 
vote  for  him."  And  he  sat  down. 

The  committee-man  whose  business  it  was  stepped  for 
ward — this  time  without  a  particle  of  arrogance  or  of  flip 
pancy.  All  the  committee  had  the  greatest  respect  for  Mr. 
Backup,  it  seemed — "their  venerable  friend,"  as  he  called 
him.  He  remembered,  himself,  and  he  was  no  longer  young, 
when  Mr.  Backup  examined  him  in  geography  in  the  old 
school-house.  But  there  seemed  to  be  an  impression,  per 
haps  he  might  say  among  the  younger  teachers,  that  some 
rotation  in  office  was  desirable,  and  as  Mr.  Backup  had 
been  in  service,  as  teacher  and  afterwards  as  committee-man, 
now  for  twenty-nine  years,  a  majority  of  the  committee  had 
reluctantly  determined  to  replace  the  name  by  that  of  a 
younger  man — Col.  Wintress,  of  the  Fort  Plain  district. 
The  Fort  Plain  people  had  had  no  member  on  the  committee 
for  five  years.  But  he  was  instructed  to  say  that,  if  any  dis 
satisfaction  was  expressed,  the  committee  wished  to  refer  the 
change  to  the  meeting,  and  he  asked  the  chairman  to  sub 
mit  it. 

"  The  man  is  an  old  fool,"  said  Cordelia  G rattan  hastily 
to  me.  "  The  book-sellers  twist  him  right  round  their 
fingers." 

The  chairman  stepped  forward  to  put  the  vote,  amid  rival 
shouts  of  "Backup!"  "Backup!"  and  "Wintress!" 


MY    FRIEND    THE    BOSS.  119 

"  Win  tress !"  I  observed  that  the  gentlemen  on  the  plat 
form  generally  refrained  from  voting.  But  the  show  of 
hands  gave  the  place  to  the  "old  fool"  of  Mrs.  Grattan's 
vocabulary,  three  to  one. 

"  Somebody  has  to  be  sacrificed,"  said  Rossiter.  "  If 
they  really  wanted  to  carry  Wintress  in,  they  should  have 
nominated  Backup,  and  had  Wintress  named  from  the  floor." 

The  ladies,  meanwhile,  now  that  they  took  the  notion  of 
the  interpellations,  were  very  much  interested,  and  wanted 
more.  Alas  !  I  was  afraid  that  there  would  be  one  too  many. 
But  I  think  that  even  Mary  Bell  had  forgotten  her  fears  in 
the  interest  of  this  drama,  as  new  to  her  as  to  Mrs.  Grattan. 

The  people,  however,  had  their  little  victory  over  a  com 
mittee,  which,  on  the  whole,  they  thoroughly  confided  in, 
and  were  not  disposed  to  carry  the  interpellations  farther. 
"  Shutup  !"  "  Oh,  be  still !"  "  Question,  Question,  Question  !" 
began  to  interrupt  people  who  asked  about  candidates,  and 
the  interest  was  decidedly  flagging,  when,  on  the  platform 
itself,  the  terrible  William  Salter  stepped  forward,  and,  to 
the  chairman's  surprise,  clearly  enough  addressed  him. 

"  The  traitor,"  said  Cordelia  Grattan,  and  for  the  first 
time  I  knew  that  she  knew  there  was  some  sort  of  danger 
connected  with  him.  I  turned  to  look  at  Mary  Bell.  She 
was  no  longer  leaning  forward  with  eager  curiosity.  She 
was  resting  back,  as  if  faint,  on  the  seat,  as  pale  as  the 
white  rose  she  wore. 

Mr.  Salter  then  said,  in  an  easy  speech,  almost  like  the 
address  of  a  lawyer  of  the  first  rank,  who  by  some  accident 
finds  himself  patronizing  a  judge  in  an  inferior  court,  that 
he  had  waited  till  the  meeting,  which  he  highly  respected, 
should  have  determined  the  details  of  the  ticket.  The  ticket 


120  MY   FRIEND   THE    BOSS. 

bore  many  names  which  he  valued.  For  some  of  the  per 
sons  named  on  it  he  should  vote.  But  the  time  had  come 
when  the  hollow  character  of  the  nomination  should  be  ex 
posed,  and  he  was  there  to  express  the  feelings  of  those  who 
wished  to  expose  it.  Here  was  all  the  form  of  a  Town  Meet 
ing.  Here  was  all  the  machinery  of  a  Committee.  What 
was  it  for?  It  was  all  to  register  the  decisions  of  one  man. 
In  a  work-shop  which  lie  need  not  name,  this  man  instructed 
his  vassals  how  they  should  vote. 

"You  shut  up!"  "Speak  for  yourself!"  "Hold  your 
jaw  !"  "Hush  !  Hush  !  Hush  !  let  him  go  on  !" 

This  from  the  audience.  Mr.  Salter  was  not  fluttered. 
Not  he  !  He  said  that  was  the  sort  of  freedom  of  speech, 
they  would  observe,  which  the  myrmidons  of  their  master 
believed  in  and  permitted.  But  this  was  not  a  gagged  meet 
ing,  and  he  was  not  a  man  to  be  frightened.  He  was  say 
ing,  when  these  hirelings  broke  in,  that  the  whole  thing  was 
cut  and  dried,  either  in  the  counting-room  on  Z  Street,  or  in 
the  palace  whose  festivities  were  the  marvel  of  the  whole 
West,  or  in  one  or  another  lodge  room,  so  secret  that  even 
an  Argus-eyed  press  could  not  tell  us  where  their  dark  coun 
cils  were  held.  From  these  conclaves  came  out  certain  de 
crees,  certain  instructions,  which  the  people  of  Tarn  worth 
were  that  night  called  upon  to  approve. 

By  this  time  there  was  a  dead  silence.  The  attack  was 
wholly  unexpected,  and  there  was  an  intense  curiosity  to 
know  what  it  meant  and  what  it  was  coming  to.  John 
Fisher,  who  was  on  the  very  front  of  the  platform,  sit 
ting  on  the  outer  chair  of  a  row  which  faced  the  speakers, 
so  that  his  profile  was  before  the  most  of  the  assembly,  sat 
perfectly  still,  looking  straight  in  Salter's  face.  He  was, 
perhaps,  a  little  pale.  Salter  never  turned  that  way. 


MY   FRIEND    THE    BOSS.  121 

He  went  on,  growing  nervous,  I  thought,  as  he  spoke. 
He  never  called  a  cheer,  or  any  token  of  sympathy  from  the 
crowd,  but,  from  first  to  last,  commanded  absolute  attention. 
He  tried  to  ridicule  John  Fisher's  displays  of  wealth,  but  no 
one  laughed.  He  asked  why  he  did  not  put  his  servants, 
footmen  and  coachmen  as  he  called  them,  in  livery,  and  sug 
gested  the  colors,  "black  and  blue,"  but  no  one  laughed. 
I  think  he  was  wounded  by  the  failure  to  draw  the  help  of 
any  of  the  assembly,  perhaps  of  some  on  whom  he  had  re 
lied.  I  think  he  fired  his  last  shot  before  he  meant. 

"And  who  is  this  English  lord,  whose  army  of  body-serv 
ants,  not  in  livery,  carry  his  messages,  and  do  their  mas 
ter's  will?  Whence  comes  this  wealth,  which  has  paid  this 
band  to  play  '  Hail  to  the  Chief,'  when  he  stepped  upon  this' 
platform,  which  pays  for  the  roses  which  the  school  children 
throw  under  his  feet  ?  Where  does  the  treasure  come  from 
with  which  he  suborns  the  press,  and  compels  the  unwilling 
scribblers  to  support,  not  him,  oh  no  !  he  is  always  in  the 
background,  but  the  Slaves  of  the  Lamp  and  the  Ring? 

"  I  will  tell  you,  gentlemen.  It  is  not  a  week  since  I 
came  at  the  secret.  For  you  and  I  cannot  do  such  things. 
If  poor,  mean  William  Halter,  if  I  should  go  to  a  pawnbro 
ker's  with  a  copper  ring,  and  tell  him  it  was  gold,  and  if  an 
ignorant  boy  took  it  from  me  and  paid  me  for  it,  I  should 
go  to  the  penitentiary.  Poor  Mike  Flaherty  was  sent  to  the 
County-house  last  week  on  a  less  offense.  But  when  John 
Fisher  wants  money,  his  character  is  above  suspicion ! 
When  John  Fisher's  bank  account  is  short,  he  sends  the  car 
riage  and  servants  and  bids  Madame  go  to  the  money-lenders  ! 
And  Madame  takes  a  pinchbeck  gewgaw  which  no  man  here 
would  give  his  daughter,  and,  because  it  is  John  Fisher's 


122  MY   FRIEND   THE    BOSS. 

jewel,  the  poor  boy  whom  she  bids  pays  .her  I  know  not 
how  many  thousands  upon  it.  And  when  the  fraud  is  ex 
posed,  does  John  Fisher  go  to  the  penitentiary?  Not  much, 
gentlemen  !  He  comes  to  this  meeting  and  asks  you  to  vote 
his  ticket.  But  you  will  not  do  it.  You  will  tear  it  to  flin 
ders  !" 

And,  like  a  prophet,  he  rent  the  offending  paper  into  shreds 
and  threw  vhem  from  him  in  scorn. 

Not  one  cheer,  not  one  word  of  applause,  however.  Salter 
was  disconcerted,  and  said  what  I  think  he  did  not  mean  to. 
"There  is  Mr.  Niederkranz.  His  boy  lent  the  money. 
There  is  John  Fisher.  Ask  either  of  them  if  what  I  say  is 
not  true." 

Then  there  was,  in  one  corner,  not  cheers,  but  clapping 
and  stamping  and  pounding  of  canes.  There  was  a  general 
standing  up  all  over  the  Hall,  to  see  what  would  come  next. 
There  was  a  scuffle  in  one  corner,  and  an  excited  man  with 
a  red  head  leaped  with  some  difficulty  upon  the  platform  from 
the  back  of  a  settee. 

The  chairman,  pale  and  surprised,  called  the  meeting  to 
order,  insisted  that  people  should  sit  down,  while  the  red- 
haired  man,  held  back  by  one  or  two  of  the  Committee,  was 
shaking  his  fist  across  the  platform  at  Mr.  Salter's  face. 
This  dumb  show  amused  the  crowd.  There  were  one  or 
two  cries  of  "  Hear  him  !  Hear  him  !" 

So  soon  as  there  was  any  return  to  silence,  I  heard  Mary 
Bell  say  to  Cordelia  Grattan,  "  Why,  it  is  Jan  Hooft,  my 
Dutch  wire-drawer.  What  in  the  world  has  he  to  do  with 
that  viper?" 

"Hush,  Hush!" 

Hooft  was  still  shaking  his  fist.     "  I  dort  I  would  tell  dem 


MY   FRIEND    THE    BOSS.  123 

vot  she  did  mid  de  money,  you  black-horned,  black  devil ! 
She  come  mit  de  money  to  Maurice  Witt,  when  him  vader 
was  dying  and  you  sent  de  sheriff  to  put  him  on  de  sidewalk. 
Dat  was  de  first  time  I  seed  dem  horses  you  tell  on.  She 
paid  your  man  de  money,  twelve  hundred  dollar  and  dirty- 
two,  mit  seven  cents  more,  and  she  paid  fifty-two  cents  do 
de  sheriff  for  de  summons,  and  de  sheriff  gave  dem  cents 
to  my  Marie,  coz  he  said  it  was  blood  money,  you  hund, 
you  blackguard,  blackguard,  dat's  what  dey  call  him  !" 

And,  greatly  relieved,  Jan  Hooft  rushed  again  toward 
Salter,  but  was  stopped  on  his  way.  The  whole  assembly 
howled  with  delight ;  some  hoping,  perhaps,  for  a  personal 
encounter.  "Three  cheers  for  Jan  Hooft!"  And  they 
gave  them  with  a  will.  All  this  time,  the  poor  chairman 
was  pounding  and  gesticulating.  I  do  not  think  many  per 
sons  noticed,  as  I  did,  that  the  man  ivhom  Cordelia  Grattan 
pointed  out  to  me  as  Niederkranz,  irreproachably  dressed, 
by  the  way,  in  full  evening  dress,  Avas  stepping  across  the 
backs  of  settees  and  reached  the  platform. 

Mr.  Salter  had  alluded  to  him  by  name. 

Other  people  saw  him,  and  cried,  "  Niederkranz,  Nieder 
kranz  !"  And  this  hushed  the  tumult  more  than  the  chair 
man.  I  looked,  not  at  him,  but  at  Mary  Bell.  She  was 
ghastly  pale.  I  begged  her  to  leave  the  hall,  but  she  husli- 
ed  me,  crowding  her  fingers  tight  upon  my  arm. 

"  Mr.  Niederkranz  !"  said  the  chairman. 

The  old  gentleman  spoke  slowly,  but  very  clearly. 
"The  speaker  called  my  name.  I  will  not  call  him  my 
friend.  He  said  something  of  a  necklace  which  Mrs.  Fisher 
left  in  our  safe  ;  and  that  we  loaned  her  a  trifle,  confiden 
tially,  for  which  she  chose  to  leave  the  necklace  as  collateral. 


124  MY    FRIEND    THE    BOSS. 

It  is  all  true.  Does  the  gentleman  think  he  has  a  monopoly 
of  lending  money  for  interest?  He  is  mistaken  if  he  does. 
When  the  proper  time  came,  she  sent  us  the  money,  and  the 
necklace,  which  is  of  priceless  value  to  her  and  to  her  friends, 
was  returned  to  her.  Is  there  more  of  the  private  business 
of  my  firm,  which  Mr.  Salter  wishes  to  bring  before  this 
meeting  ?" 

But  Salter  was  not  there.  I  had  seen  him  take  his  hat 
as  soon  as  Jan  Hooft  was  hustled  from  the  platform.  One 
or  two  voices  called,  "Salter,  Salter!"  and  the  chairman 
said,  perhaps  with  a  satirical  turn,  "  AVill  Mr.  Salter  come 
forward?"  But  there  was  no  William  Salter.  Every  one 
was  talking  to  every  one  else.  "  The  incident  was  exhaust 
ed,"  as  the  French  say.  With  some  difficulty  the  chairman 
pounded  and  screamed  through  a  vote,  confirming  the  nom 
inations,  and  pledging  support  at  the  polls. 

And  so  the  meeting  was  over. 


CHAPTER     XIX. 

"VTONE  of  us  in  the  carriage,  as  we  drove  home,  knew 
how  much  the  others  knew.  There  was,  therefore, 
a  certain  chill  over  the  conversation.  I  noticed,  even  before 
we  left  the  gallery,  that  Mary  Bell's  face  was  no  longer  pale. 
It  was  blazing  with  color.  Had  this  Mr.  Rossiter  said  any 
thing  to  her  to  excite  her?  He  led  her  to  the  carriage,  and 
left  us  there. 

"  Shall  we  not  look  for  Mr.  Fisher?"  said  I,  before  the 
carriage  started. 

"  No,"  said  Miss  Bell  promptly,  "  lie  will  be  better  pleas- 
'ed  if  we  take  care  of  ourselves,  and  leave  him  to  come  when 


MY   FRIEND   THE    BOSS.  125 

he  is  ready."  So  we  entered  the  carriage,  and  gave  the 
order  for  home. 

After  a  painful  pause,  I  ventured  to  say,  "A  scene  in 
deed.  Did  you  guess  what  was  coming?" 

"Only  half,"  said  Mary  Bell,  "and  that  half  I  did  not 
dare  tell  you." 

"  Did  he  know  it  was  coming?"  said  Mrs.  Grattan. 

"Yes,"  said  I, "I  gave  him  the  warning  myself."  And 
then  I  told  her  what  I  knew. 

"Brave  creature!"  said  Cordelia  Grattan.  "Shall  we 
ever  understand  him?  Certainly  we  shall  never  understand 
his  wife.  Pawning  jewels  for  money  !  When  if  she  had 
asked  him  for  a  million,  he  would  have  given  it  to  her." 

Mary  Bell  said  nothing. 

When  AVC  came  to  the  door,  John  Fisher  was  standing 
there.  He  had  arrived  before  us. 

"  So  you  saw  our  little  melodrama,"  he  said,  coolly,  as  he 
handed  the  ladies  from  the  carriage.  "  Virtue  triumphant, 
and  vice  defeated.  Come  up  to  supper  ;  Mrs.  Edwards  will  be 
raging." 

"  Is  the  man  iron?"  said  Cordelia  Grattan  to  me.  And 
so  we  passed  into  the  breakfast-room,  as  for  some  reason, 
not  known  to  me,  the  room  was  called  in  which  we  generally 
met,  just  before  bed-time,  for  such  refection  as  Mrs.  Edwards 
thought  best  fitted  for  that  fifth  meal  of  the  day. 

Were  you  happily  following  the  pages  of  Dumas  or  of 
Dickens,  reader  of  mine,  you  would  know  what  the  entertain 
ment  on  this  occasion  was.  But,  as  you  have  learned  to 
your  sorrow,  this  author  is  more  reserved  than  they. 

Fisher  served  us  himself,   and  affected  to  be  even    gay. 


126  MY    FRIEND    THE    BOSS. 

But  he  was  not,  and  we  all  knew  him  so  well  that  we  knew 
that  he  was  not.  Still,  he  would  not  "  go  back"  on  what 
he  had  said  at  the  house  door.  So  soon  as  he  saw  us  well 
engaged  in  the  conflict  with  hunger  and  thirst  he  took  up  the 
same  theme. 

"  You  had  all  tried  to  forewarn  me,  but  Cassandra  herself 
could  not  have  told  us,  I  think.  What  I  am  to  say  to  my 
wife,  I  am  sure  I  do  not  know. '  If  she  brings  us  into  scrapes, 
her  allies  certainly  bring  us  out  again." 

1  said  that  Jan  Hooft,  if  that  were  his  name,  would  certain 
ly  take  any  prize  for  oratory,  even  over  the  head  of  the 
famous  Mr.  Clipsham. 

Once  more  Miss  Bell's  face  flushed  crimson,  as  I  had  seen 
it  in  the  gallery  at  the  hall,  and  as  I  never  saw  it  before.  I 
was  opposite  to  her  so  that  I  could  not  but  see  this,  and 
for  a  moment  I  thought  she  would  rise  and  leave  the  table. 
But  she  staid  and  pretended  to  sip  her  chocolate.  "  She  is 
iron,  too,"  I  said  to  myself.  Fisher  felt,  I  think,  that  he 
had  said  all  that  needed  to  be  said,  and  so  led  the  talk  into 
a  discussion  of  the  rights  and  wrongs  of  the  episode,  by  which 
Col.  Wintress  was  ousted  from  his  place  on  the  school  com 
mittee,  and  that  "  old  fool"  was  put  in  again. 

"  I  told  them,"  said  he,  "  to  have  Wintress  named  from 
the  floor.  But  they  said  I  was  no  manager,  and  under 
took  to  arrange  things  their  own  way." 

Cordelia  Grattan  told  him  that  Mr.  Rossiter  had  made  the 
same  suggestion. 


MY    FRIEND   THE   BOSS.  127 


CHAPTER  XX. 

A/IRS.  FISHER  did  not  appear  at  breakfast  the  next 
morning.  Nor  did  she  appear  before  we  left  the 
house.  And  I  observed  that  the  children,  who  were  general 
ly  quite  willing  enough  to  discuss  the  scraps  of  local  news, 
and  who  were  wildly  interested  in  the  canvass,  which  was 
indeed,  by  this  time,  the  centre  of  every  one's  thought,  I 
observed,  I  say,  that  the  children  made  no  allusion  to  the 
scenes  of  the  night  before.  This  was  the  more  striking,  be 
cause  Bedford  had  been  on  the  floor  with  some  of  his  com 
rades,  and  had  seen  with  his  eyes  and  heard  with  his  ears. 

It  was  again  one  of  those  days  when  there  Avas  no  question 
what  we  should  do.  It  Avas  what  was  called  "  Harvest 
Day,"  a  sort  of  anticipation  of  Thanksgiving,  Avhich  had 
been  intercalated  for  the  purpose  of  inventing  an  autumn 
holiday  for  the  school-children. 

"This  year,"  said  Mary  Bell,  "  it  is  all  nonsense.  For 
they  had  their  parade  and  holiday  the  day  Avhen  we  laid  the 
corner-stone.  But  the  '  custom  Avas  introduced,'  as  the 
newspapei'S  say,  some  five  years  ago,  by  an  enterprising 
high-school  teacher.  Your  purists  would  say  that  we  can 
not  introduce  a  custom.  But  we  knoAV  better,  and  have 
done  it.  And  these  very  children  in  this  house  think  there 
has  been  a  harvest  day,  and  that  school-rooms  have  been 
decorated  with  wheat  and  barley  and  rice  and  sugar-cane, 
ever  since  "  Adam  delved  and  Eve  span." 


128  MY    FRIEND    THE    BOSS. 

"Where  shall  we  take  Mr.  Mellen,  Cordelia?  Of  course 
we  must  go  to  the  High  School,  for  Edgar  speaks.  But  for  the 
other  schools,  shall  it  be  kindergarten,  introductory,  primary, 
secondary-primary,  preparatory,  grammar,  grammar-techni 
cal,  technico-classical,  classical  or  secondary?  Shall  we 
go  to  the  Logan  School,  the  Harrison,  the  Meriwether,  the 
Tennyson,  the  Johnson,  the  Stubbs,  or  the  La  Salle?" 

It  was  agreed  that  we  should  spend  an  hour  at  one  of  the 
kindergartens,  not  so  much,  so  far  as  I  could  see,  for  any 
thing  which  we  were  to  learn  about  education,  but  because 
Agnes  Fitch,  the  teacher,  was  "  so  pretty,  and  so  nice." 
Then  we  were  to  do  two  hours  at  the  Meriwether  School,  be 
cause  the  children  were  all  Norwegians,  and  Dutch,  and 
Germans,  and  Bohemians,  and  of  every  other  name  and 
nationality  under  heaven,  except  that  of  the  country  to  which 
they  all  owed  allegiance.  Then,  promptly  at  twelve,  the 
carrriage  was  to  be  at  the  side-door  of  the  Meriwether,  and 
we  were  to  take  two  hours  at  the  High  School  that  we  might 
hear  Edgar  speak  in  the  French  dialogue  in  which  Miss 
Bell  had  been  coaching  him. 

Like  many  other  men,  who  have  themselves  spent  a  good 
deal  of  time  in  teaching  the  young,  and  so  in  "  getting  up  " 
exhibitions,  I  had  not  felt  much  enthusiasm  about  all  this, 
and  certainly  I  came  down  to  breakfast  with  no  intention  of 
going  to  primary,  middle  or  secondary.  I  had  my  morning 
work  to  do,  and  it  never  occurred  to  me  that  my  presence  was 
necessary  at  either  of  these  solemnities. 

But  I  observed  on  the  instant,  that  I  was  not  to 
exercise  any  choice  on  this  occasion.  So  far  as  I  remember 
ed  for  every  other  party  of  the  endless  series  in  which  the 


MY    FRIEND    THE    BOSS.  129 

• 

household  was  involved,  I  had  always  been  asked,  in  form, 
whether  I  wished  to  go  or  no.  But  here  my  wish  was  taken 
for  granted.  Or  rather  it  was  taken  for  granted  that  I 
should  go  whether  I  wished  it  or  not.  This  was  so  evident 
from  the  first,  that  I  did  not  even  struggle.  I  was  prevent 
ed,  fortunately,  from  committing  myself.  And  I  did  not 
intimate,  by%dnk  or  by  shrug,  that  five  hours  spent  on  crowd 
ed  school  settees,  at  school  exhibitions,  were  not  for  me  the 
very  happiest  hours  of  my  life. 

"What  surprised  me  even  more  was  to    find,  when  we  met 
at  the  front  door  at  quarter  of  nine,  that  John  Fisher,  dress 
ed  as  for  a  gala  day,  was  of  the  company. 

"Mr.  Mellen,  I  must  put  you  in  trim,"  said  Cordelia 
G rattan.  "  Really,  you  know,  you  are  very  nice,  but  you 
do  not  look  as  if  anybody  took  an  interest  in  you.  I  must 
give  you  one  of  my  carnations." 

And  she  pinned  one  upon  my  coat.  I  was  forced  to  con 
fess  that  I  had  not  known  that  we  were  expected  at  the  ex 
hibition. 

"  They  are  all  red-letter  days  here,"  said  she,  in  an  un 
dertone,  looking  at  Fisher,  who  was  giving  his  hand,  at  the 
carriage,  to  Miss  Bell.  "  Whatever  else  is  neglected  in  this 
house,  any  honor  that  can  be  paid  to  the  schools  is  render 
ed." 

And  he  took  up  her  remark,  as  we  all  entered  the  carriage 
and  started.  "  Yes,"  he  said,  "  any  man  who  really  wants 
to  keep  in  the  ebb  and  flow  of  life  will  be  wise  if  he  keeps 
the  run  of  the  schools.  You  learned  people  make  a  great 
fuss  about  what  you  call  your  charities.  If  you  could  real 
ly  get  at  the  English  of  the  thing,  it  would  appear  that  in 


130  MY    FRIEND    THE    BOSS. 

• 

the  public-school  teachers,  by  and  large,  through  the  country, 
you  have  a  staff  of  intermediaries  between  the  comfortable 
classes  and  those  in  need,  such  as  none  of  your  charity 
machinery  will  manufacture  in  many  years.  My  Miss 
Mather  and  that  nice  Mrs.  Philbrick  are  at  the  Logan,  and 
Sarah  Plais ted — and  your  friend,  Mrs.  Grattan,  the  girl  that 
squints,  this  Miss  Fitch — these  are  all  teacher*,  Mellen,  and 
they  are  ail  sisters  of  charity.  They  know  where  the  shoe 
pinches,  and  they  know  how  to  help,  and  where.  AVhy, 
Sarah  Plaisted  showed  me  a  drawer  full  of  jaunty  neckties, 
which  she  keeps  ready,  so  that  no  Mike,  or  Bernard,  or  Jack, 
or  Tom,  of  the  crew,  may  be  mortified  because  he  does  not 
look  as  well  as  the  best.  And  that  favorite  subject  of  your 
novelists,  the  widow  supported  by  her  children's  exertions, 
when  she  exists,  which  is  not  often,  always  knows  the 
"teacher"  and  the  "  teacher  always  knows  her." 

"  Oh,  dear  !  "  he  said  laughing,  "  I  wish  I  could  jerk  out 
the  word  '  teacher,'  as  the  little  pirates  do.  Half  of  them 
cannot  remember  the  teacher's  name.  And  when  they 
struggle  to  be  mannerly  to  me,  they  invariably  call  me 
'  Ma-am,'  instead  of  '  Sir.' 

"  But  I  am  not  going  to  the  exhibition,"  he  added,  "  be 
cause  these  good  people  are  good  almoners.  I  am  going  be 
cause  the  schools  are  the  centre  of  the  whole  concern.  They  ex 
ist,  by  the  goodness  of  God,  and  are  a  great  deal  better  than 
one  could  imagine  they  would  be.  Your  gilt-edged  people 
are  beginning  to  sniff  at  them,  and  the  bigots  would  be  very 
glad  to  tear  them  to  pieces,  and  shirks  and  do-nothings  are 
always  trying  to  ruin  their  own  children  by  stealing  their 
education  from  them.  They  take  them  from  school  and 


MY    FRIEND    THE    BOSS.  131 

send  them  where  they  can  earn  wages.  All  decent  people, 
Mellen,  who  want  the  commonwealth  to  endure,  should  do 
what  you  and  I  are  doing,  and  when  a  chance  comes,  show 
an  interest  in  the  affair." 

I  had  to  confess  to  him,  as  I  had  to  Mrs.  Grattan,  that  I 
had  come  because  the  rest  came.  "  All  right,"  said  he,  "  so 
you  count  one  on  the  platform." 

One  always  picks  up  something  now  at  a  public  school, 
and,  once  in  the  whirl  of  the  exhibitions,  I  was  entertained. 
But  the  interesting  thing  of  all  was  to  see  how  many  friends 
— one  would  say  intimate  friends — John  Fisher  had  among 
the  children.  He  would  nod  to  them,  and  they  grin  at  him. 
He  occasionally  slipped  a  lozenge,  by  much  stealth,  into  the 
hand  of  a  little  tot ;  once  or  twice  he  crossed  the  room  to 
speak  to  a  boy  or  girl,  and,  in  general,  he  showed  much 
more  interest  in  the  children  as  children  than  in  the  examina 
tions,  which  showed  how  many  facts,  of  more  or  less  import, 
had  been  drilled  into  them.  As  we  went  from  room  to  room, 
there  would  be  an  evident  buzz  of  satisfaction  wherever  he 
appeared.  As  we  went  from  the  kindergarten  to  the  older 
grammar  school,  I  congratulated  him  upon  this.  I  told  him 
it  was  the  most  satisfactory  reward  a  man  could  have  for 
such  a  loyal  interest  as  he  had  expressed. 

"It  keeps  me  young,"  said  he.  "That  is  the  best  re 
ward.  But,  in  truth,"  he  added,  with  serious  pleasure, 
"  Mrs.  Grattan,  there,  calculated  the  other  day  that  there 
are  twenty-two  thousand  young  people  in  this  world  who  have  a 
right  to  stop  me  in  the  streets,  because  in  these  fifteen  years 
past  I  have  held  some  personal  relation  toward  them  in  these 
schools.  I  have  signed  their  diplomas,  or,  perhaps,  present- 


132  MY   FRIEND    THE    BOSS. 

ed  them  when  some  one  else  signed  them,  or  I  have  given 
the  bouquets,  or  they  have  had  their  dance  on  our  green, 
or  something  has  correlated  us,  as  your  pundits  would  say. 
Yes  ;  that  is  a  pleasure  to  a  man  like  me,  who  believes  that 
man  is  a  gregarious  animal." 

A  scene  in  the  Meriwether  grammar-school  illustrated  this 
"  correlation,"  and  really  brought  the  tears  to  his  eyes. 

So  soon  as  we  arrived,  we  were  received  with  ceremony 
and  state,  as  if  we  had  been  admitted  to  a  private  show  of 
the  Royal  Academy  in  London.  Handsome  boys  of  fifteen, 
with  the  orange  and  white,  which  proved  to  be  the  colors  of 
jthe  schools,  blazing  at  their  button-holes  in  orange  blossoms 
and  marigolds,  escorted  us  up  the  stairs.  Two  head  mar 
shals,  with  ornamented  batons,  bearing  the  same  colors, 
gave  them  directions  where  Mr.  Fisher  should  sit  and  where 
the  ladies,  and  where  poor  I,  who  was  the  inferior  among 
all.  John  Fisher,  I  need  not  say,  was  among  the  highest 
dignitaries.  His  seat  was  actually  next  the  master's 
throne.  The  girls  who  were  in  the  highest  class  were 
prettily  dressed  in  uniform,  which  showed  how  the 
homes  were  'subordinated'  to  the  school.  Every  girl 
wore  orange  and  white  in  some  form.  But  it  was,  alas,  too 
late  in  the  season  for  the  white  frocks  which  belong  to 
school  girls,  and  in  which  they  look  their  prettiest. 

The  great  hall,  to  which  we  arrived  by  painful  climbing, 
one  of  the  kind  which  Dr.  Holmes  calls  a  "  High-story-call  " 
hall,  was  crowded  to  the  last  corner.  Dignitaries  of  botli 
sexes  were  on  the  platform.  Below,  the  favored  seats  were 
filled  by  ladies,  among  whom  Miss  Bell  and  Mrs.  Grattan  had 
"  reserved  seats,"  which  were  the  grandest  of  all.  Seats 


MY    FRIEND    THE    BOSS.  133 

further  back,  or  on  the  sides,  were  filled  with  men,  among 
whom  was  I,  and  it  was  clear  enough  that  all  sorts  of  people 
were  making  a  holiday  of  the  occasion.  I  was  sure  that 
there  was  many  a  man  who  would  not  have  left  his  work  for 
any  less  occasion  than  to  hear  Margaret  sing  or  John  speak 
at  the  exhibitions.  As  for  dress,  there  was  nothing  in  color  or 
fabric  to  distinguish  these  people  from  the  dons  on  the  plat 
form. 

And  so  we  went  on  through  the  programme.  It  is  always 
new  and  it  is  always  old.  For  me  I  always  cry  my  eyes 
out  on  such  an  occasion ;  there  is  something  in  the 
fresh  voice  of  girls  or  of  boys  which  compels  the 
tears,  even  if  the  singing  of  the  words  shows,  be 
yond  a  doubt,  that  the  sentences  have  been  com 
mitted  to  memory.  And  when  they  sing  together,  there  is 
a  tenderness  which  wholly  upsets  me. 

We  were  nearly  done,  when  we  came  to  one  of  the  last  of 
what  the  newspapers  call  "  numbers  "  or  "  events."  It  was 
a  trio  sung  by  three  girls,  perhaps  fourteen  years  old,  at  the 
piano.  One  of  them,  a  pretty  blonde,  of  features  distinctly 
Dutch  or  German,  sang  with  that  sort  of  passion  which  has 
seemed  to  me  most  often  to  sweep  singers  away,  as  if,  at 
least,  they  were  less  under  the  sway  of  the  machinery  of 
music  than  other  artists  are  under  the  technicalities  of  their 
art.  Anyhow ,  this  child  lost  memory  of  the  place  and  the 
audience,  and  sang  her  part  in  this  hymn  as  if  none  but  the 
good  God  heard  her.  And  in  the  triumphant  close,  as  the  three 
sang  together,  her  voice  rose  above  the  rest,  as  if  it  must 
rise.  The  whole  assembly  was  hushed  to  absolute  silence, 
and  when  the  song  was  finished,  whole  seconds  passed  by, 


134  MY    FRIEND    THE    BOSS. 

with  the  dead,  still  hush  upon  us  all,  before  there  swooped 
down  upon  the  stillness  the  thunders  of  applause. 

Quite  without  a  hint,  and  I  am  sure,  without  any  fore 
thought,  the  girl  who  was  the  head  of  the  school,  who  had  a 
wreath  in  her  hand,  prepared  for  I  know  not  what,  crossed 
to  the  piano  and  put  it  on  the  pretty  singer's  head. 

The  child  blushed,  faltered,  half  smiled,  half  cried, 
grew  pale,  and  then  very  prettily  ran  forward,  down  the 
steps,  to  her  father,  who  was  in  the  first  row  of  men  on  one 
side.  He  rose  and  kissed  her,  patted  her  forehead  prettily 
and  took  the  garland  in  his  hand.  As  he  rose,  I  recognized 
him  at  once,  and  so  did  half  the  assembly. 

It  was  Jan  Hooft,  the  Dutch  worker  in  wire,  whose  speech 
had  come  in  so  effectively  the  night  before. 

He  bent  down  and  kissed  her  again,  and  then  fearlessly 
led  her  across  the  front  of  the  stage,  up  the  steps  to  the 
school-master's  throne,  and,  before  John  Fisher  knew  it,  the 
girl  had  placed  the  laurel  on  his  head  ! 

Of  course,  in  an  instant,  he  seized  it  and  had  it  in  his  hand. 
But  the  whole  company  knew  the  story  of  the  night  before,  and 
every  one  was  clapping  with  all  his  might,  if  he  were  not 
waving  his  handkerchief.  Every  one  who  knew  Jan  Hooft 
told  his  name,  and  the  thing  gave  every  one  a  chance  to  ex 
press  pent-up  enthusiasm  for  him  and  for  his  friend. 

So  it  was,  that  I  think  I  was  almost  the  only  person  who 
saw  a  bit  of  by-play  in  this  queer,  mediaeval  scene.  I 
turned,  of  course  I  turned,  to  see  what  Miss  Mary  Bell  was 
doing  or  was  thinking.  Again  her  face  was  flushed  with  the 
intense  blaze  with  which  it  had  flushed  the  night  before.  She 
seemed  all  quivering  with  emotion.  And,  as  I  wondered, 


MY    FRIEND    THE    BOSS.  13.3 

the  girl,  the  singer,  who  roused  all  this  emotion,  turned  from 
her  father,  passed  to  Miss  Bell's  seat,  and  flung  herself  into 
her  arms  as  she  might  have  into  her  mother's.  This  scene, 
however,  was  unnoticed  by  the  assembly.  As  I  say,  they 
were  clapping  and  waving,  while  Fisher  and  Hooft  stood 
shaking  hands  and  talking  eagerly.  Only  I,  who  always 
watched  Miss  Bell  if  I  could  watch  her,  knew  what  was 
passing  with  her,  and  wondered  what  this  fascinating  woman 
had  to  do  with  this  remarkable  child.  Hooft  and  Fisher  in 
deed,  could  not  have  heard  a  word  which  either  said.  It 
was  all  dumb  show.  And  in  a  minute,  a  chair  had  been 
found  for  the  wire-drawer  by  John  Fisher's  side,  and  he  was 
compelled  to  sit  in  it,  that  so  the  performance  might  go  on. 
Meanwhile,  Mary  Bell  soothed  and  petted  the  girl ;  kissed 
her  again  and  again,  and  finally  persuaded  her  to  take  her 
seat  again,  her  own  cheeks  blazing  with  crimson  all  the 
time. 

No  school  was  allowed  to  hold  its  audience  more  than  two 
hours.  For  it  was  understood  that  the  members  of  the 
committee  and  other  officials  must  attend  at  several  exhibi 
tions  in  succession.  We  left  with  the  others,  found  the  car 
riage,  and  drove  to  the  High  School,  where  one  of  our.  own 
boys  was  to  speak. 

But,  if  I  expected  to  have  a  word  privately  with  Mary 
Bell,  as  we  left  the  school-house  and  went  to  the  carriage,  I 
\ias  disappointed. 


136  MY   FRIEND    THE    BOSS. 


CHAPTER  XXI. 

[ANOTHER  INTERPOLATED  CHAPTER.     MR.  MELLEN'S  MEMOIRS 

ARE  FULL,  BUT  THERE  ARE  SOME  POINTS  WHICH  HE,  FOR 

SOME  REASON,  DID  NOT  CARE  TO  ENTRUST 

TO  WRITING.] 

A  S  they  drove  from  the  High  School  after  the  last  speeches 
had  been  spoken  and  the  last  diplomas  given,  it  proved 
that  John  Fisher  had  an  errand  in  the  town,  in  carrying  out 
which  he  needed  Mrs.  Grattan's  judgment.  After  a  little 
discussion,  it  was  arranged,  therefore,  to  Mr.  Mellen's  great 
joy — though  he  had,  of  course,  no  voice  in  these  plans — 
that,  at  the  corner  of  Fremont  Avenue  and  La  Salle  Street, 
these  two  should  leave  the  carriage  and  take  a  street-car  for 
their  shopping,  while  Miss  Bell  and  Mr.  Mellen  rode  home 
together,  and  were  to  announce  that  the  other  two  would  be 
at  home  within  ten  or  fifteen  minutes. 

Lucky  Mr.  Mellen — to  ride  home  with  her  and  no  one 
else,  with  ten  good  minutes  to  say  what  he  would,  and  no 
possibility  that  she  should  escape  him,  even  if  she  wished 
it. 

Alas,  he  did  not  use  his  time  for  the  very  best.  At  least 
he  thought  so  afterwards. 

He  did  not  mean  to  lose  a  moment's  time.  He  began 
with  the  adventure  at  school. 

"  That  girl  is  another  Jenny  Lind,  if  one  may  trust  the 
Jenny  Lind  pictures.  She  came  to  you  as  if  you  were  her 


MY    FRIEND    THE    BOSS.  137 

sister.  How  have  you  known  her,  and  what  is  the  mystery 
of  all  this  ?  I  have  half  the  secret  of  the  necklace  ;  can  you 
not  tell  me  the  whole  ?  " 

"  Secret !  Why  do  you  call  that  a  secret,  which  was  pro 
claimed  before  two  thousand  people  ?" 

"  Because  I  think  it  was  not  proclaimed.  I  do  not  be 
lieve,  and  I  do  not  think  you  believe,  that  the  two  thousand 
people  went  away  much  better  informed  than  they  came." 
And  Mr.  Mellen  added  with  some  hesitation,  because  he 
was  in  doubt  how  far  he  had  better  go  : 

"  And  I  supposed  ;  yes,  I  suppose  now  that  if  you  chose 
you  could  tell — well,  that  at  least  you  could  tell,  if  you 
wished,  more  of  the  interior  of  Jan  Hooft's  house  than  you 
did.  I  thought  so,  even  when  we  were  talking  at  breakfast, 
and  since  the  girl  kissed  you  so  eagerly  and  passionately, 
why,  I  think  so  more  than  ever." 

Mary  Bell  smiled,  but  not  with  her  engaging  or  fascinat 
ing  smile.  She  smiled  rather  as  if  she  forced  herself  to 
smile,  and  then  she  said,  with  a  little  flush : 

"  You  thought  I  could  tell,  if  I  chose,  Mr.  Mellen.  And 
what  do  you  think  I  shall  tell,  if  I  do  not  choose  ?  " 

Mellen  saw  in  a  moment  that  he  had  gone  too  far.  He 
had,  in  fact,  put  himself  in  the  false  position  of  a  man  who 
has  to  begin  a  critical  conversation  with  an  apology.  But 
he  made  the  apology  like  a  man. 

"  I  beg  your  pardon.  But  you  spoil  us,  Miss  Bell.  You 
have  been,  as  I  tell  you  every  day,  my  guide,  philosopher, 
and  friend,  in  the  intricacies  of  this  life,  where  I  might  stum 
ble  every  day.  You  must  not  take  it  hardly  if  I  try  your 
good  nature  too  far." 


138  MY   FRIEND   THE   BOSS. 

"  Not  my  good  nature,"  said  she,  not  trying  now  to  laugh 
or  to  pretend  to  any  longer.  "  No,  you  may  be  sure  that 
I  will  try  to  be  good-natured.  But  my  prudence,  my  dis 
cretion  ;  if  you  please,  my  wisdom — yes.  Do  not  try  them 
too  far,  if  you  please,  for  I  am  not  sure  of  them  myself  in 
this  matter,  and  I  dare  not  say  to  myself  at  what  moment 
they  may  give  way." 

Mellen  would  have  said,  had  he  dared,  that  she  was  the 
"wisest,  virtuousest,  discreetest,  best,"  and  the  prudentest 
of  women,  as  well  as  the  most  charming  and  to  him  the 
dearest. 

But  he  did  not  dare.     He  did  say,  with  some  hesitation : 

"  I  would  have  said,  Miss  Bell,  had  I  any  right  to  say  so, 
and  if  I  have  not  you  must  forgive  me,  that  if  any  woman 
can  trust  her  own  judgment  you  can  ;  if  any  woman  is  apt  to 
be  prudent,  you  are.  Surely,  very  few  people  would  venture 
to  advise  you." 

She  was  as  pale  now  as  he  had  seen  her  once  be 
fore.  And  she  did  not  look  at  him,  but  at  the  vacant  cush 
ion  beside  him,  as  she  slowly  answered : 

"  Yes,  I  have  my  secret,  and,  to  be  quite  frank  with  you, 
I  shall  act  on  the  rule  you  taught  us  the  first  day  you  were 
here  :  '  If  you  want  your  secret  kept,  keep  it.'  Whether  I 
were  wise  to  have  such  a  secret,  that  is  a  different  thing. 
But  I  am  so  glad  you  liked  Minna  Hooft.  How  could  you 
help  it,  indeed?  You  must  ask  Cordelia  about  her. 
Cordelia  has  watched  her  voice  with  great  care,  and  has  a 
right  to  be  proud  of  it." 

Mr.  D'Israeli  tells  a  story  of  Venetia  in  her  childhood,  that 
she  said  to  her  nurse,  "I  do  not  want  to  talk  about  butter- 


MY   FRIEND   THE    BOSS.  139 

flies  ;  I  want  to  talk  about  widows."  Had  Mellcn  dared,  he 
would  have  said,  "I  do  not  want  to  talk  about  Minna  Hooft ; 
I  want  to  talk  about  you,  and  tell  you  what  a  charming  and 
noble  woman  you  are,  and  how  I  wish  I  might  say  more." 

But  a  man  cannot  always  say  what  he  wants  to. 

"  She  does  you  infinite  credit,"  he  said,  not  impatiently. 
"And,  if  for  two  or  three  years  she  has  such  guides,  what 
may  not  be  hoped  for  her?  But  tell  me,  Miss  Bell,  what  is 
your  method.  How  is  it  that  your  hand  is  in  every  hand ; 
that  you  counsel  statesmen  by  John  Fisher's  intervention, 
that  you  lift  Jan  Hooft  out  of  his  miseries,  close  the 
dying  lips  of  that  poor  creature  I  left  you  with  last  week, 
and,  all  the  same,  are  the  life  of  our  house  ;  my  l  guide  and 
philosopher' ;  nay,  even  poor  Mrs.  Fisher's  protector.  You 
ought  to  tell  your  pupil  how  all  this  is  done." 

There  was  not  the  least  frivolous  shadow  over  what  he  said. 
He  said  it,  indeed,  very  eagerly.  He  meant  what  he  said, 
though  he  Avanted  it  to  lead  farther.  And  she  could  not — 
nay,  she.  would  not  laugh  it  off  as  compliment. 

"  Oh,  Mr.  Mellen,  you  are  asking  for  my  autobiography. 
How  I  was  educated  and  what  came  of  it.  If  we  shall  ever 
take  an  Indian  voyage  together,  there  will  be  time  for  me  to 
tell  you.  Seriously,  if  one  means  to  do  the  duty  next  her 
hand,  I  fancy  one  finds  no  difficulty  as  to  variety  of  life." 

"  I  was  not  asking  about  variety  of  life.  So  far  as  I 
see,  life  has  only  too  much  variety.  What  I  want  to 
know  is  how  to  keep  well  the  whip-hand  on  life  as  you  do. 
You  are  never  surprised.  Pardon  me,  you  never  lose  your 
temper.  You  never  say  a  smart,  sharp  thing,  even  when 
you  think  it."  He  was  going  on  to  say,  "  You  come  into  a 


140  MY   FRIEND    THE    BOSS. 

room,  and  all  is  sunshine.  You  talk  to  a  fool,  and  he  be 
comes  a  man  of  sense."  Nay,  he  would  probably  have 
aaid,  "You  are  the  most  charming  and  lovable  Avoman  in 
the  world,  and  you  do  not  know  it." 

But  she  had  no  intention  of  letting  his  eulogy  run  into 
an  unmanageable  stage,  and  she  interrupted  him.  Once 
more  the  conversation  was  skilfully  landed  in  another 
hemisphere. 

"  Oh,  you  ask  to  many  questions.  And  I  am  the  last 
person  to  answer  them.  You  must  go  to  some  of  your 
great  talkers  for  that.  Is  not  that  the  good  of  your  Grand 
Memoires,  in  ten  volumes,  which  you  men  find  time  to 
read,  but  I  never.  I  look  on  those  sets  of  books,  'Memoires 
pour  Servir,'  and  I  wonder.  But  you ;  you  are  a  scholar. 
I  shall  have  an  advantage  when  you  come  to  the  higher 
education  again.  Was  it  not  you  who  quoted  Madame  de 
Genlis  so  skilfully  to  Miss  Porter  ?  " 

Mellen  held  his  ground,  though  he  saw,  perhaps,  that  she 
did  not  mean  that  he  should. 

"You  know  very  well,"  he  said,  bravely,  "  that  this  is 
no  matter  of  books.  You  know  that  I  might  go  through 
some  post-graduate  courses,  and  that  no  professor  could 
teach  me  what  you  can.  You  know,  also — I  am  sure 
you  do  me  that  justice — that  I  am  the  last  man  in  the 
world  to  talk  compliment  to  you.  You  know  I  respect  you 
too  far — I  wish  I  might  say  I  admire  you  too  far.  I  am 
grateful,  now,  for  this  chance  of  saying  this  while  we  are 
alone."  And,  if  Mary  Bell  had  let  him  go  on,  Mr.  Mellen 
would  have  improved  the  minute  he  had  left  to  go  much 
further  and  say  much  more. 


MY   FRIEND   THE   BOSS.  141 

It  will  not  do  to  say  that  his  mind  Avas  absorbed  in  that  one 
purpose.  Minds  are  capable  of  carrying  on  many  lines  of 
"  cerebration  "  at  once.  And,  while  he  was  saying  all  this, 
almost  passionately,  he  was  thinking,  with  equal  passion, 
"  Why  does  this  infamous  Thomas,  on  the  box,  drive  these 
horses  so  much  faster  than  they  ever  went  before." 

Miss  Bell  was  pale.  She  was  very  attentive.  She  did 
not  lose  her  self-possession.  At  the  moment  when  he  said 
"Alone" — when  he  had  to  pause — though  for  the  least 
instant,  for  a  mere  differential  of  a  second — she  replied  to 
him  as  if  he  had  waited  for  an  answer,  and  with  no  air  of 
interrupting  him. 

"  Indeed,  Mr.  Mellen,  I  do  you  full  justice.  Indeed,  I  am 
sure  you  have  seen  that  we  are  friends,  true  friends.  You 
said  so  within  the  minute,  even  when,  in  joke,  you  called 
me  a  philosopher,  which  we  both  know  that  I  am  not.  Mrs. 
Grattan  and  I  have  been  saying,  only  to-day,  that  we  were 
glad  you  determined  to  stay  into  next  Aveek,  because — well 
— because  we  were  glad/'  There  was  a  faint  blush,  as  if 
she  had  trifled,  and  indeed  she  had.  But  he  Avas  to  have  no 
chance  to  take  up  his  broken  thread.  "  She  is  grateful — I 
am  grateful — that  there  is  one  man  Avho  comes  to  this  house 
who  has  not  an  axe  to  grind,  who  has  no  college  to  endow, 
no  Avater-fall  to  develop,  no  city  to  found,  no  invention  to 
explain.  More  grateful  are  AVC  that  this  strange  visitor 
pays  us  the  first  of  compliments  by  treating  us  as  if  we  were 
Avomen  of  sense.  Why,  we  had  a  man  here  who  told  Mrs. 
Grattan  that  orthography  meant  good  spelling,  and  another 
told  me  that  Mr.  D'Israeli  was  the  leader  of  the  Tory 
party." 


142  MY    FRIEND    THE    BOSS. 

Not  one  chance  did  she  give  to  Mr.  Mellen,  as  she  talked 
on.  And  probably  she  would  have  gone  on  with  her  illus 
trations,  but,,  at  this  moment,  this  Jehu  Tom  swept  round 
the  curve  of  the  avenue,  and  drew  up  at  the  front  door  of  the 
house. 

Whether  he  would  or  no,  Mr.  Mellen  had  to  step  from 
the  carriage  and  offer  her  his  hand. 

She  mounted  the  steps  rapidly  before  him.  But  he  fol 
lowed  as  rapidly.  And,  as  she  led  the  way  across  the  ample 
hall,  he  said,  with  true  courage,  in  a  voice  which  could  not 
but  be  heard : 

"Pray  do  not  go  up-stairs.  Step  for  a  moment  into  the 
parlor." 

She  was  too  brave  not  to  obey,  and  she  turned.  He  led 
the  way  this  time  into  an  elegant  satin-bedecked  room  of 
state,  into  which,  in  that  house  of  comfort,  nobody  ever 
went,  unless  there  was  a  great  evening  party.  She  followed 
him,  as  he  asked  her  to  do.  She  took  the  chair  he  offered 
her,  qxiite  behind  the  door.  He  was  dead  in  earnest,  it  was 
easy  to  see  that.  He  even  closed  the  door  as  he  passed 
it. 

"  You  do  not  do  me  justice,"  he  said.  "You  talk  of 
Mrs.  Grattan  as  if  you  and  she  were  the  same  persons  to 
me.  I  respect  Mrs.  Grattan.  I  admire  her.  But,  with 
all  her  wealth,  and  with  that  ease  which  I  suppose  money 
brings  with  it,  she  does  not  work  your  miracles.  If  no  one 
else  tells  you  so,  I  will  tell  you  so." 

She  looked  on  the  carpet,  and  was  thoroughly  attentive 
now. 

"I   do  not  want  to  talk  about  Mrs.  Grattan  ;  I  want  to 


MY    FRIEND    THE    BOSS.  143 

talk — well,  about  myself — and  about  Miss  Mary  Bell.  And 
I  want  to  talk  of  both  together." 

And  here  he  tried  to  smile. 

"I  have  asked  you  to  come  in  here,  because  I  have  a  favor 
to  ask.  You  do  not  know  me,  I  think — I  hope — as  well  as 
I  could  wish  that  you  knew  me.  I  am  sure  that  I  know 
you — that  is,  I  say  so  to  myself  every  morning,  and  then 
every  night  I  am  sure  that  I  know  something  of  you  which 
I  never  knew  before.  We  are  never  alone,  and  that  is  the 
reason  why  I  am  so  bold  now.  If  you  will  believe " 

"Are  you  two  here?"  cried  Mrs.  Fisher,  entering  at  this 
moment,  from  a  little  room,  which  was  called  the  morning- 
room.  "I  have  been  roaming  all  round  this  empty  house, 
to  find  some  sort  of  society.  One  might  as  well  live  in  a  log- 
cabin.  And  here  you  have  been  talking  temperance  all  the 
morning." 

Mr.  Mellen,  who  would  have  gladly  thrown  her  out  of  the 
window,  repressed  himself  so  far  as  to  say  that  they  had  but 
that  moment  come  in  ;  that  they  had  come  from  the  school 
exhibitions. 

UI  know  that  very  well,"  said  Mrs.  Fisher,  who  had  just 
before  said  she  supposed  something  else.  "I  know  where 
you  all  went.  Mary  told  me.  And,  because  I  happened  to 
breakfast  up-stairs,  no  one  could  tell  me  in  time.  Because, 
I  suppose,  it  is  my  pet  pleasure  of  the  year  to  go  and  hear 
these  little  things  speak  and  sing,  it  had  to  be  kept  a  dead 
secret  from  me.  I  came  down  just  as  you  had  gone,  and 
found  the  house  empty  as  usual." 

Mr.  Mellen  hastened  to  say  that  a  message  from  her  maid 
gave  Mr.  Fisher  the  impression  that  she  did  not  wish  to  go. 


144  MY   FRIEND    THE    BOSS. 

"I  do  not  know  what  I  said  to  Mary.  My  head  was 
cracked  with  pain.  I  was  not  fit  to  sit  up.  And  I  should 
not  have  got  up,  but  that  everything  goes  wrong  the  minute 
I  stay  in  bed  fifteen  minutes  later  than  usual. 

"Ah,  Mr.  Mellen,  no  man  will  ever  understand  what  the 
care  of  a  great  household  is,  where  one  has,  beside,  the 
families  of  twelve  hundred  work-people  to  look  after."  And 
she  sank,  in  her  most  helpless  and  confiding  attitude,  on  the 
sofa  by  poor  Mellen's  side,  and  began  with  him,  just  as  if 
she  had  never  begun  before,  as  if  he  were  an  entire  stranger, 
and  were  wholly  new  to  the  story  of  her  sufferings,  her  lone 
liness,  and  of  what  it  was  to  be  misunderstood  or  not  under 
stood  at  all. 

"  Now,  take  to-day,"  she  said,  in  her  most  confidential 
tone.  She  was  so  confidential  that  Miss  Bell  rose,  and  said, 
"  I  will  run  up-stairs,  and  be  ready  for  dinner.  Cordelia 
will  be  here  in  five  minutes,  Mrs.  Fisher,  and  your  husband 
with  her." 

And  poor  Mellen — such  is  the  fate  of  men  in  highly-civilized 
society — could  not  rush  after  her,  and  beg  her  to  give  him 
some  chance  to  show  her  what  man  he  was.  He  would 
have  been  so  glad  to  say  everything  to  her.  Of  what  she 
had  been  to  him  already,  and  could  be  forever,  if  she  would 
let  him.  And — such  is  destiny — instead  of  this,  he  must  sit 
and  share  the  wayward  sorrows  of  his  wayward  hostess. 

'•  Yes,  Mr.  Mellen,"  said  Mrs.  Fisher,  so  soon  as  Mary 
Bell  had  gone.  "I  was  saying  that  this  was  one  of  the 
mornings  when  I  felt  specially  well.  I  dressed  myself  with 
that  feeling — you  know  what  it  is,  dear  Mr.  Mellen — of 
exulting  joy  that  I  was  in  the  world.  Well,  yes,  I  want- 


MY    FRIEND    THE    BOSS.  145 

ed  to  measure  myself  with  the  Avorld.  You  understand  me, 
I  am  sure,  Mr.  Mellen,  though  so  few  people  do  understand 
me.  I  felt  as  if  poor  I,  also,  could  be  of  some  use. 

"  And  then,  think  of  it.  No,  you  cannot  think  of  it. 
Without  the  experience  of  it,  even  you  would  not  imagine  it. 
To  come  down-stairs,  ready  for  action,  as  I  heard  you  say 
yesterday — or  was  it  Mr.  Rossiter  who  said  it — to  come 
down  and  find  yourself  quite  left  out  and  forgotten.  That 
nobody  wonted  you,  and  all  plans  had  been  made  without 
you." 

She  stopped,  and  suppressed  a  sob. 

"  Well,  I  shall  be  used  to  it  some  day,  I  suppose.  Do 
not  let  us  talk  of  that.  Let  us  talk  of  something  more  im 
portant.  You  speak  to-night,  I  think.  May  I  go  with 
you,  dear  Mr.  Mellen?  Interested  as  I  am  in  everything 
which  relates  to  the  people,  do  not  think  that  it  is  I  who 
brings  all  the  frivolity  into  this  house.  The  girls — well,  of 
course,  Cordelia  and  Mary  must  spend  their  time  as  they 
will,  and  I  am  the  last  person  to  hinder  them.  But  if  I 
could,  if — well,  you  know,  dear  Mr.  Mellen,  I  will  out 
with  it.  If  it  did  not  seem  like  flying  in  my  poor  husband's 
face,  I  would  fill  this  house  with  such  people  as — well  as  you." 

Mr.  Mellen  hastened  to  assure  her  that  the  society  he  had 
met  in  the  house  had  been  such  as  he  had  enjoyed  and 
profited  by. 

"  You  are  very  kind.  But  I  do  think,  sometimes,  that 
if  I  ever  had  a  well  day — if  I  were  not  such  a  wretched 
wreck — 

At  this  moment  they  heard  the  front-door  open,  and 
John  Fisher's  voice,  as  cheery  as  if  there  had  never  been  a 
cross  to  his  life  . 


146  MY   FRIEND   THE   BOSS. 

"  All  aboard  !  Who's  at  home?  The  prodigals  have  re 
turned,  and  are  all  starving."  And  Mr.  Mellen  gladly  left 
his  companion,  to  meet  Mr.  Fisher  and  Mrs.  Grattan  in  the 
hall. 


M 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

[MR  MELLEN  RESUMES  THE  PEN.] 

Y  visit  was  drawing  to  an  end.  I  had  engagements  to 
speak  in  Illinois,  and  this  life  of  luxury  and  variety 
could  not  last  forever.  Our  great  election  was  to  come  off 
on  Tuesday,  and  I  was  to  be  one  of  many  speakers  at  the  final 
caucus  of  the  friends  of  order  on  Monday  night.  On 
Saturday  night  the  same  senate  which  I  had  met  once  before, 
and  but  once  before,  at  John  Fisher's,  was  to  meet  again  in 
his  library  for  his  last  consultation. 

"  We  ought  to  know  the  result  to-night  as  well  as  if  we 
waited  for  the  slow  marching  of  the  vote,"  said  Fisher,  as 
we  met  in  the  cheerful  room  where  the  various  chiefs  of  sec 
tions  were  to  appear.  "  Generally  you  do.  With  a  can 
vass  as  good  as  ours  we  know  within  fifty  votes  where  we 
shall  be,  and  we  know  about  as  well  about  the  other  side. 
But  this  year  everything  is  confused,  broken  to  pieces  ;  there 
are  signs  of  a  row  in  their  camp." 

He  always  spoke,  as  I  have  said,  of  ';  their"  as  he  might 
have  said  "  the  Trojans,"  or  "  the  Greeks,"  as  if  "  They  " 
were  a  proper  name,  and  "  their"  its  possessive  case. 

"  But  they  know  how  to  keep  secrets,  which  is  more  than 


MY    FRIEND    THE    BOSS.  147 

we  do.  We  wash  our  dirty  linen  in  the  most  public  ways 
we  can  find. 

"  Besides  this,  nobody  knows  what  these  third  party 
people  will  do.  /.Then  there  is  this  old  greenback  division, 
as  if  the  question  of  paper  or  silver  could  be  connected  with 
the  questions  of  purity  or  devildom.  So  that,  in  short,  our 
most  trusty  prophets  will  be  careful  of  their  utterances  this 
evening. 

"  I  have  met  these  men  when  they  were  ready  to  wave 
their  handkerchiefs  and  to  hurrah  when  they  came  into  the 
room,  and  again  there  are  years  when  every  man  sits  down 
at  this  conclave  cross  and  blue,  and  says  he  is  going  to  sell 
his  house  and  move  to  Florence  or  Geneva  for  the  rest  of 
his  life. 

"  But  they  never  do  move.  They  always  stay  here  for 
one  fight  more.  They  stand  up,  like  boxers,  for  one  more 
round,  and  are  sure,  as  Grant  was  at  Donelson,  that  the 
other  side  must  be  as  much  demoralized  as  his  own." 

Our  friends  were  very  punctual ;  generally  speaking  they 
were  in  good  spirits,  aud  those  who  had  bad  reports  to  make 
took,  in  very  good  part,  the  chaffing  of  the  others.  As  be 
fore,  we  had  one  representative  of  every  ward.  And  the 
clock  had  hardly  struck  when  the  last  man  appeared. 

At  the  moment,  the  whole  party,  who  had  been  standing, 
took  seats.  It  was  clear  that  no  moment  was  to  be  lost.  I 
was  the  only  outsider. 

Silence  fell  over  the  company,  all  so  gay  in  chatter  but  a 
moment  before,  and  without  the  least  formality,  John  Fisher 
said,  turning  to  Ward  I's  man  : 

"  How  do  we  stand,  Mr.  Barnett?  " 


148  MY   FRIEND   THE   BOSS. 

"  Really,"  said  Barnett,  "  it  is  much  my  old  story.  The 
athletic  meeting  was  a  great  good  fortune  for  us.  We 
buried  no  end  of  hatchets.  If  you  had  time,  you  would  like 
to  know  how  important  it  was  or  seemed  that  the  Glazier's 
nine  should  beat  the  Boot-tree  men.  Anyway  it  healed  some 
very  bad  jealousies.  I  will  not  brag  of  my  figures,  but  my 
reports  give  'them '  473  votes  ;  say,  to  be  sure,  480.  We 
have  611,  with  some  five  chances  for  sick  men  and  absen 
tees.  We  are  quite  sure." 

"How  much  cherry  pectoral,  John?"  This  from  the 
other  side  of  the  room.  It  was  an  old  joke,  referring  to 
some  occasion  when  Barnett  had  taken  a  sick  voter  to  the 
polls  in  a  carriage,  and  had,  or  was  said  to  have,  a  bottle  of 
cherry  pectoral  to  stop  his  coughing  when  he  was  exposed  to 
the  air. 

With  such  reports,  now  favorable,  now  unfavorable,  AVC 
went  on.  I  should  not  make  a  reader  understand,  if  I 
tried  to  give  the  detail,  which,  indeed,  I  did  not  always 
understand  myself.  That  complicated  matter  on  the  Hill 
was  entirely  healed  over.  Indeed  we  gained  full  two  hun 
dred  votes  from  elegants  who  did  not  generally  condescend 
to  turn  out  at  what  they  called  ward  elections.  Dr. 
Witherspoon's  candidacy  was  a  very  fortunate  element,  so 
far.  We  needed  these  votes  on  the  general  ticket,  though 
in  his  own  ward  he  would  have  been  handsomely  chosen 
without  them. 

Biit  some  hopes  of  the  earlier  meeting  had  been  wholly 
blighted.  Thus,  in  Ward  VII,  Varick  had  been  quite  sure, 
when  we  met  before,  that  the  Norwegians  would  insist  on 
their  own  ticket,  that  the  regular  ticket  which  "•  They  "  sup 


MY    FRIEND    THE    BOSS.  149 

ported  would  materially  suffer  from  the  defection,  and  that 
if  "  We "  could  put  up  an  absolutely  faultless  ticket  we 
might  run  in  between  the  two  factions  of  a  broken  enemy. 
Varick  had  evidently  favored  the  sedition  of  the  Norwegians 
to  the  best  and  the  last.  He  had  had  Norwegian  speakers 
from  Wisconsin,  and  circulated  endless  copies  of  flyers  in 
pure  Norse.  But,  on  Tuesday,  his  messengers  had  told  him 
that  the  whole  bolt  had  caved  in.  The  leaders  of  it,  on 
whom  he  had  relied  most,  had  sold  out.  One  of  them  was  to 
have  a  billiard-room,  rent  free,  and  the  other  was  to  be 
chosen  for  that  ward  on  the  school  committee,  where,  till 
this  time,  "They"  had  been  Avilling  to  keep  a  very  pure 
and  noble  Catholic  priest. 

"  That  is  all  we  have  gained,"  said  poor  Varick,  crest 
fallen.  "  This  hound  of  a  Knabe  in  the  school-board  instead 
of  dear  old  Father  Managhan  ;  and  three  councilmen — any 
one  of  whom  ought  to  be  in  the  penitentiary." 

Ward  IX  was  as  uncertain  as  the  beginning  of  the  fifth 
act  of  a  sensational  drama.  Whether  the  third  party  would 
throw  up  its  ticket  at  the  end,  and  accept  our  men,  or  our 
offer  to  take  their  nominations  for  street  commission  arid  gas- 
inspector,  or  whether  they  meant  to  ruin  the  whole  ward,  and 
let  the  enemy  carry  everything,  no  one  would  know  until 
Monday.  Indeed,  it  all  seemed  to  depend  on  the  state  of  a 
certain  Tom  Conner's  digestion  Monday  noon.  So  at  least 
Wooster  said,  who  reported  for  Ward  IX.  But  the  general 
verdict  was  that  if  wheat  rallied  at  Chicago  before  Monday, 
Tom  Conner  would  be  all  right  and  good-natured,  and 
would  direct  things  sensibly.  But  if  wheat  continued  to  de 
cline,  Conner  would  be  ' '  mad  "  and  would  ' '  break  the 
slate." 


150  MY   FRIEND    THE    BOSS. 

With  many  elements  of  doubt  it  was  clear  that  we  should 
carry  the  Mayor ;  we  had  a  strong  man  with  a  backbone, 
who  meant  to  succeed,  himself,  and  had  made  a  very  favorable 
impression  on  the  stump.  Our  canvass  gave  him  9,211 
votes,  and  gave  McCaull,  who  was  on  the  other  side,  7,800 
in  round  numbers. 

But  with  this  stiff  preponderence  in  the  city,  the  wards  were 
more  doubtful.  The  wards  had  been  skilfuly  re-divided, 
the  last  time  "  They"  had  the  power.  The  Hill,  which  was 
dead  against  them,  alone  absorbed  3,000  of  our  votes,  while  a 
decent  average  Avard  had  but  1,400  votes  all  told.  Then 
there  was  another  ward,  four  miles  long  and  thirty  rods 
across,  which  gave  us  1,300  votes  against  121.  Similar 
contrivances  had  so  bewitched  the  ward  lines  that  we  were 
sure  of  but  four.  It  was  clear  that  ' '  They  "  were  sure  of 
four  in  any  contingency. 

In  the  IVth,  the  Vlllth,  and  the  Xllth,  we  could  make  no 
prophecy  even  now.  We  should  need  every  vote  in  each  of 
them.  If  we  only  won  three  we  should  have  but  seven 
wards  against  five,  and  every  one  felt  that,  with  as  compact 
an  opposition  as  "They"  always  made,  this  would  be  a 
very  hollow  victory. 


CHAFfER   XXIII. 

I  observed  at  breakfast  that  Mrs.  Fisher's  appetite  was 
such  as  must  encourage  her  friends.  I  sat  next  her,  and 
her  occasional  comments  on  her  food,  as  her  plate  was 


MY   FRIEND   THE   BOSS.  151 

changed,  or  as  some  new  dish  was  brought  to  her,  made  it 
impossible,  even  for  the  most  unobserviug,  to  be  quite 
ignorant  of  her  selections. 

I  was  a  little  surprised,  therefore,  when,  after  an  unusual 
term  of  silence,  her  second  cup  of  coffee  was  brought  to  her, 
with  some  kidneys  and  mushrooms,  which  followed  upon  the 
broiled  chicken  she  had  been  at  work  upon,  to  hear  her  say 
that  she  had"  lain  awake  all  night  with  a  raging  neuralgic 
attack.  "  Every  clock  in  this  house  did  I  hear  strike  every 
hour,  Mr.  Mellen,"  she  said,  pathetically.  "  And  it  seem 
ed  as  if  there  were  forty  of  them.  And  when  that  hateful 
cuckoo  at  the  head  of  the  stairs  stepped  out  relentlessly,  and 
yelled  all  the  quarters  at  me,  I  wanted  to  rush  out  of  the 
room  and  wring  his  neck  for  him.  But  I  need  not  describe  it, 
dear  Mr.  Mellen.  You  know  what  neuralgia  is.." 

1  said  I  was  afraid  I  did  not  know.  That  if  it  was  like 
what  used  to  be  called  old-fashioned  jumping  toothache,  I 
know  very  well  what  that  was  in  old  times,  but  that  I  had 
generally  had  courage  enough  to  go  to  Dr.  Handvise  and  let 
him  pull  the  offender  out.  I  found  I  had  touched  an  irrita 
ble  nerve. 

"  That's  just  what  Cordelia  there,  and  Mr.  Fisher  are  for 
ever  saying  to  me.  As  if  neuralgia  were  not  one  thing,  and 
toothache  wholly  different.  Mr.  Mellen,  believe  me,  I  have 
not  an  unsound  tooth  in  my  head.  Yet  every  night,  now, 
since  that  miserable  lawn  party  which  I  gave  to  the  base-ball 
people,  have  I  lain  without  a  wink  of  sleep,  while  this 
shower  of  fire,  I  call  it ;  shower  of  pain,  you  would  call  it, 
streams  from  my  eyelids  over  my  face  on  both  sides.  I 
have  simply  to  bear  it  and  bear  it.  '  Bear  and  forbear,'  is 


152  MY   FRIEND   THE    BOSS. 

not  that  what  you  men  say  of  women?  I  believe  that  is 
what  you  think  AVC  are  made  for." 

"Is  there  no  sort  of  sedative?"  said  I,  with  all  proper 
sympathy.  "  Hops,  bromine,  or  this  new  xylopogon  from 
Bolivia?" 

"Mr.  Mellen,  if  you  have  a  friend  you  love,  warn  them 
against  such  appliances,  internal  or  external.  Trust  me, 
for  I  know.  No  ;  tell  your  friend,  if  she  is  a  woman,  to 
endure.  Tell  her  to  endure  to  the  end,"  she  added,  in  a 
certain  studied  and  rather  artistic  seriousness,  to  indicate 
that  she  knew  that  the  words  came  from  the  Bible.  They 
sounded  well,  and  she  repeated  them.  "Yes;  let  her  en 
dure  to  the  end ;  there  is  no  saying  how  soon  that  blessed 
end  may  come  ;"  this  with  a  certain  rapturous  sigh,  as  if  one 
saw  an  open  heaven  before  her. 

I  had  been  unsuccessful  in  both  my  ejaculations  of  sym 
pathy,  and  tried  another  line  :  "  You  must  lose  strength," 
I  said,  "  if  you  lose  sleep,  and  how  shall  one  talk  of  en 
durance,  if  one  have  no  strength  with  which  to  endure?" 

"  I  do  not  know.  I  do  not  know.  There  is  resolution, 
of  course — resolution  !  Who  shall  say  how  far  resolution 
may  carry  one,  if  one  truly  resolves.  If  one  truly  resolves  ; 
if  one  truly  resolves." 

This  repetition,  once  or  twice,  of  an  axiom,  is  supposed 
to  give  it  a  certain  oracular  power,  as  if  one  and  another 
nymph,  according  and  sympathizing,  flung  it  back,  endorsed 
"  Seen  and  approved,"  in  the  glad  echoes  of  their  different 
chancelries. 

"  If  one  truly  resolves.     If  one  truly  resolves." 

I  hastened  to   say  that  for  such  resolution  there  needed  a 


MY    FRIEND   THE   BOSS.  153 

balance  of  all  the  faculties,  and  that  I  hoped  she  might  gain 
some  help  from  a  ride.  The  morning  was  beautiful ;  the  air 
invigorating,  and  perhaps  an  hour  or  two's  air-bath  might 
prove  an  advantage. 

"  Oh,  Mr.  Mellen  ;  I  sometimes  think  that  you  men  have 
neither  hearts  nor  souls.  You  do  not  know  what  it  is  to 
feel ;  if  to  feel  be  to  feel  deeply,  and  to  live — well,  to  live 
profoundly.  My  husband,  there,  is  always  saying  what 
you  do.  '  Will  not  a  ride  do?'  or,  '  Would  you  not  like  a 
cup  of  tea?'  or,  'Perhaps  I  can  send  you  a  slice  of  toast.' 
You  are  always  prescribing  physical  remedies,  when  the  dif 
ficulty  is  deeper  down.  It  is  a  difficulty,  Mr.  Mellen,  of 
that — well,  we  call  it  Life,  because  we  have  no  better  name 
for  it,  it  has  no  name,  and  I  ought  not  wonder  that  I  can 
not  speak  of  it  so  that  any  one  can  understand  me.  But 
take  an  instance.  Here  am  I.  A  common-place,  every-day 
woman.  Thousands  of  women  are  exactly  like  me  ;  shop 
girls,  factory-girls,  actresses,  milliners,  women  on  the  prai 
ries  yonder,  hoeing  their  husband's  cabbages.  We  are  all 
women,  though  we  dress  in  one  or  another  sort  of  finery,  and 
lead  different  external  careers.  Still  at  heart  we  are  women. 
So  far  we  lead  one  life.  I  call  it  Life,  because,  you  know, 
there  is  no  better  name  for  it.  One  day  there  will  be,  I 
hope.  Or,  rather,  I  suppose  that  one  day  we  shall  be  able 
to  name  Life  without  speaking  of  it. 

"  Now  for  this  Life,  there  comes  some  check,  some  hin 
drance.  You  understand  me." 

I  bowed,  and  so  far  lied,  if  a  lie  can  be  expressed  by  a 
gesture.  If  the  bow  meant,  however,  that  I  wished  she 
would  gabble  on,  without  requiring  me  to  contribute  to  the 
conversation,  it  was  a  very  true  bow,  and  virtuous. 


154  MY  FRIEND  THE   BOSS. 

"There  comes  some  hindrance,  some  difficulty.  Unut 
terable,  if  you  please  ;  what  is  utterance?  It  is  like — it  is 
like  the  shimmer  on  the  wheat  when  it  rises  to  the  sun  in 
June.  What  is  the  shimmer?  Is  it  more  wind  ;  is  it  less 
wind?  I  do  not  know.  You  do  not  know  ;  no  one  knows. 
And  this  check  comes  on  Life,  if  I  must  call  it  Life,  this 
difficulty,  this  hindrance,  and  then  you  men  send  for  a  doc 
tor  and  expect  him  to  give  belladonna,  or  castor  oil ;  or  the 
most  sympathizing  of  you,  you  yourself,  dear  Mr.  Mellen, 
talk  of  appetite  or  going  to  drive." 

I  was  going  to  make  some  apology,  when  she  went  on  : 

"  No,  Mr.  Mellen,  when  you  have  bathed  in  agony,  as  I 
have  now  for  eight  nights,  you  do  not  rise  in  the  morning  to 
fall  to  sweeping,  and  cooking,  and  writing  letters,  and  re 
ceiving  visits,  and  returning  them,  as  if  the  machinery  of 
life  needed  no  oil.  You  talk  of  food " 

In  fact,  I  had  said  no  word  of  food. 

"  I  do  assure  you,  Mr.  Mellen,  that  this  bit  of  toast  with 
the  mushroom  sauce  upon  it  which  I  ate  just  now,  uncon 
sciously,  while  I  was  talking  to  you,  is  the  only  food  that 
has  passed  my  lips,  without  a  struggle,  since  that  fatal  day  of 
the  athletics.  Indeed,  I  might  say  it  is  all  that  I  have  eaten, 
excepting  some  boiled  rice  on  Tuesday — no,  Wednesday — 
and  my  regular  Murdock's  food  at  noon,  which  I  force  down, 
and  my  toast- water  before  going  to  bed.  I  take  that  toast- 
water  from  a  superstition,  but  the  pain  is  just  the  same." 

All  this  went  on  in  an  undertone  at  our  end  of  the  table. 
The  children  beyond  us  were  carrying  on  the  thorough-going 
business  of  breakfast.  Beyond  them  was  John  Fisher  him 
self,  joking  with  them,  while  Mrs.  Grattan's  seat  and  Miss 
Bell's  were  empty.  For  them  to  be  late  was  unusal. 


MY   FRIEND   THE   BOSS.  155 

When  they  did  come  in,  breakfast,  for  the  rest  of  us,  was 
nearly  finished.  Their  morning  dresses  were  so  pretty,  and 
their  flowers  so  fresh,  and  both  of  them  in  such  gay  spirits, 
that  John  Fisher  rallied  them  on  their  delay.  He  said  they 
had  some  scheme  of  conquest  before  them,  and  that,  like 
many  a  great  general,  they  had  taken  so  much  time  for  prep 
aration  that  they  had  lost  the  battle  before  it  began.  "  The 
chickens  are  cold,"  he  said  ;  "  the  kidneys  are  eaten  up,  the 
coffee  is  cold,  and,  what  is  worse,  by  this  time  Mary  is  inev 
itably  cross.  She  will  send  up  word  that  there  is  not  an 
egg  in  the  house,  that  no  coffee  came  from  Ward's  yesterday, 
and  that  we  have  had  the  last ;  she  will  say  that  she  has  just 
put  coal  upon  the  range,  and  that  nothing  can  be  heated.  No, 
if  you  can  satisfy  yourself  with  a  cracker,  they  say  it  is  from 
Boston,  Miss  Mary,  and  a  pickle,  I  think  there  is,  you  will 
do.  Possibly  we  can  find  an  olive." 

Mary  Bell  laughed  at  her  very  prettiest ;  the  sunniest 
laugh,  it  seemed  to  me,  that  ever  passed  over  a  lovely  face. 
"It  is  Cordelia's  fast-day,  I  believe,  in  her  church.  Is  it 
not  St.  Anthony's  day,  or  St.  Barbara's  day,  Cordelia?  I 
think  Mr.  Mellen  has  some  crisp  codfish  by  him.  As  for 
me,  I  spoke  to  Ellen  Kideau  as  I  came  down-stairs.  I 
told  her  that  I  should  live  Avith  just  an  omelette,  and  some 
cream-toast,  and  a  quail,  if  there  was  one,  and  some  Indian 
cakes,  if  Mary  would  send  up  a  chop  and  some  buckwheats 
afterwards.  Ellen  is  my  friend,  and  here  the  omelette  is.'' 

In  fact  Ellen  appeared  with  their  breakfast  at  the  moment. 

"  But  all  this  does  not  explain,"  said  John  Fisher,  "  why 
you  are  both  so  late.  Have  you  been  out  to  church  any 
where?  We  are  so  very  catholic  and  cosmopolitan  here 


156  MY    FRIEND    THE    BOSS. 

that  I  am  always  on  the  look-out  for  some  new  rite.  Has 
Dr.  Witherspoon  instituted  morning  vespers,  or  midnight 
nones  or  trines,  or  anything  else,  by  way  of  helping  on  his 
canvass  for  alderman  ?  And  have  you  to  be  off  every  time 
the  third  Monday  before  the  second  Tuesday  after  the  seventh 
Sunday  after  midsummer  falls  on  a  full  moon  ?" 

"Mr  Fisher,"  said  Cordelia,  "you  shall  hold  your  peace. 
1  should  think  no  one  was  ever  down-stairs  two  seconds  late 
in  this  house  before.  If  you  will  have  the  Amphions,  and 
John  Caruthers,  with  his  magnificent  tenor,  and  the  Chicago 
quintette  playing  in  the  moonlight  all  night,  what  do  you  ex 
pect  of  two  music-mad  girls  in  the  morning?" 

"  Amphions  !"  cried  John  Fisher,  aghast. 

"  John  Caruthers  !"  cried  Mrs.  Fisher. 

And  even  the  children  stopped  their  chatter  in  amaze 
ment.  The  amazement  was  too  evident  for  any  one  to  sus 
pect  acting.  And  it  was  Mrs.  Grattan's  turn  to  be  amazed, 
and  Mary  Bell's. 

"  Do  you  mean  that  you  slept  all  through  the  serenade?" 

"Serenade!"  said  John  Fisher.  "Do  you  tell  me  that 
all  these  people  have  been  on  my  lawn  last  night,  and  have 
not  had  a  bit  of  cheese  or  a  biscuit?" 

"  Surely  you  heard  them,  Mrs.  Fisher.  I  saw  the  light 
in  your  room,"  said  Mrs.  Grattan. 

"I  heard  them,  Cordelia?  How  can  you  ask?  You 
know  that  just  in  those  heavy  hours  of  my  first  sleep  I  hear 
nothing.  It  is  a  comatose  state,  I  believe.  I  am  dead,  or 
might  be."  And  she  went  on  with  some  details  of  the  physi 
ology  of  sleep,  which  would  have  surprised  Dr.  Hammond. 

But  I  am  afraid  no  one  listened. 


MY    FRIEXD    THE    BOSS.  157 

"  I  am  ashamed  of  you,  John  Fisher,  "  said  Mrs.  Grattan. 
"And  you,  Mr  Mellen.  To  be  sure,  your  room  is  out  of 
the  way.  No  ;  I  am  ashamed  of  myself,  that  I  did  not  go 
round  the  house  with, a  watchman's  rattle,  which  I  brought 
from  Cincinnati  with  me.  Or,  really,  we  had  better  have  a 
gong.  Mr.  Fisher,  you  must  have  a  gong  to  hang  at  the 
door  of  my  room,  if  you  do  mean  to  have  the  first  musicians 
in  America  come  at  night  to  play  on  your  lawn." 

"I  do  not  care  so  much  for  the  playing,"  said  Fisher, 
"as  I  do  for  the  supper.  Mary  will  kill  me  in  the  first 
place ;  or,  if  I  escape  her,  I  shall  not  dare  look  in  the  face 
any  cornet- a-piston  for  ten  years.  '  Page,  squire  and  groom  ;' 
that  there  was  no  one  my  halls  have  nursed  to  give  those 
poor  fellows  a  graham  cracker,  or  a  cup  of  water.  Who 
do  you  say  was  here,  and  what  did  they  play?" 

Then  it  appeared  that,  a  little  after  midnight,  the  stillness 
had  been  broken  by  an  exquisite  song  by  Caruthers,  whose 
perfect  tenor,  in  those  years,  had  no  equal  this  side  the 
ocean,  or  the  other.  Then  the  Quintette  Club,  which  was 
passing  through  Tarn  worth  on  a  visit,  played  something  ex 
quisite,  but  the  ladies  were  not  agreed  what  it  was.  By  this 
time,  they  had  both  been  on  the  alert ;  had  their  gas  lighted, 
and  were  in  communication  with  each  other.  They  had 
agreed  that  it  would  be  a  shame  to  call  Mrs.  Fisher,  if  by 
good  fortune  she  were  asleep.  This  was  the  form  by  which 
they  now  expressed  themselves.  I  suppose  that  in  fact  they 
knew  she  would  take  it  ill,  whatever  they  did,  and  so  that 
they  elected  the  simplest  course. 

"  As  for  you,  Cousin  John,  as  the  serenade  was  right  in 
front  of  your  room,  and  so  that,  even  if  we  had  peeped  out, 


158  MY    FRIEND    THE   BOSS, 

we  could  not  have  seen  Mr.  Caruthers,  unless  he  came  round 
to  look  for  us,  and  as  the  orchestra  was  at  least  twenty 
pieces,  we  did  not  think  that  we  must  come  and  knock  a 
tattoo  on  your  door.  Another  time  we  will." 

"  Another  time  !"  groaned  poor  John  Fisher.  "  Do  you 
think  they  will  ever  come  this  side  of  Clarion  street?  Not 
a  doughnut,  or  a  piece  of  custard  pie  for  them  !  They  must 
have  been  in  a  hurry.  Were  going  over  to  some  Turner 
Hall,  perhaps." 

"  Hurry?  It  was  not  what  I  call  hurry.  I  looked  at  my 
watch  when  I  put  on  my  wrapper  and  it  was  then  half-past 
twelve.  When  I  got  into  bed  again,  the  cuckoo  was  singing 
two  and  a  quarter.  Why,  Caruthers  sang  four  or  five  times, 
the  Amphions  sang  that  round  they  sang  at  the  concert ;  they 
sang  Korner's  battle-hymn  ;  they  sang  that  weird  air  James 
wrote  for  the  Alcestis.  Oh,  they  sang,  five,  six — I  do  not 
know  how  many  times  !  Then  the  quintette  people  had  al 
ways  something  between  the  choruses.  Why,  John,  it  was 
a  regular  concert !" 

"And  I  snoring  in  harmony,"  said  he,  lugubriously. 
"  And  these  fine  fellows  reduced  to  refreshing  themselves 
with  lager,  and  cursing  me  for  my  stinginess.  Well,  I  will 
organize  a  night  watch,  if  you  girls  stay  any  longer  here,  to 
detect  serenades.  But  then  nobody  will  ever  serenade  this 
house  again." 

And  he  turned  to  his  newspaper  for  his  consolation.  The 
older  children  began  persecuting  the  ladies  for  details. 
"How  did  Mr.  Caruthers  look?  Did  he  stand  up,  or  did 
he  sit  on  one  of  the  piazza  chairs?" 

"My  child,  you  do  not  suppose  that  I  stood  at  the  win- 


MY    FUIEND    THE    BOSS.  159 

(low  throwing  kisses  to  Mr.  Caruthers,  or  that  I  peeped  from 
behind  a  curtain.  The  utmost  which  we  dared  do  was  to 
light  the  gas.  I  opened  Mary's  door  and  found  her  lighting 
hers.  Then  we  had  to  be  very  careful  about  the  shadows. 
Yon  have  to  have  some  shadows  on  a  curtain  in  a  serenade, 
but  as  the  professor  told  us,  at  Yassar,  they  must  be  sug 
gestive  shadows,  or  indicative,  and  not  too  realistic.  There 
must  not  be  an  exact  profile  of  a  night-cap,  or  of  a  dishev 
eled  head,  but  there  must  be  something  that  indicates  life 
and  motion.  Indeed,  it  should  also  indicate  joy  or  enthu 
siasm,  mingled  with  repose  and  a  sense  of  refreshment.  We 
practiced  last  night  on  the  wall.  Mary  had  a  feather  duster, 
and  I  had  a  warming-pan,  which  we  tried  effects  with,  but 
none  of  them  succeeded.  At  last,  however,  Mary  got  some 
fine  broad  effects  to  move  across  the  curtain  by  putting  out 
her  gas,  and  carrying  a  candle  backward  and  forward  be 
hind  a  rocking-chair." 

Mary  Bell  only  laughed,  as  her  reckless  friend  rattled  on. 
To  this  moment,  I  believe  there  were  some  shadows,  I  know 
not  what,  manufactured  for  the  occasion. 

John  Fisher  roused  from  his  newspaper. 

"And  all  the  hospitality  this  house  could  offer  to  thirty 
of  the  first  artists  in  the  country  was  a  set  of  shadows  on  a 
curtain."  Then  he  filing  down  his  paper  in  scorn.  But  his 
eye  rested  on  its  title. 

"  Registered  as  second-class  matter,"  he  said.  "  I  would 
give  them  a  certificate  that  it  was  fifth-class  matter,  if  they 
asked  me,  and  low  grade  at  that.  If  there  were  but  one  of 
them,  I  would  send  it  to  the  museum  as  a  curiosity ;  but  so 
many,  each  more  stupid  than  another,  there  is  no  room  in 


160  MY   FRIEND-  THE   BOSS. 

any  museum  for  them  all.     But  there  is  one  piece  of  news, 
Mary  ;  it  will  interest  your  friend  Mr.  Rossiter." 

Why  did  her  face  flush  crimson,  just  as  I  saw  it  that  night 
Jn  the  gallery  of  the  town  hall,  when  the  Dutchman  was 
speaking.  She  tried  to  speak  calmly. 

"  What  has  happened  to  Mr.  Rossiter?" 

"  Oh,  nothing  has  happened  to  him,  strictly  speaking. 
What  I  meant  was  that  old  Mr.  Shearman  is  dead.  He  has 
been  in  Europe  for  his  health,  which  means  that  he  has  been 
in  Florence  and  Switzerland  dying.  He  died  day  before 
yesterday,  it  seems.  That  means  promotion  in  the  Life 
office.  Haggerston  will  be  the  president,  all  of  them  will  be 
pushed  up  a  peg,  and  Rossiter,  who  provides  brains  for 
the  crowd,  will  have  a  decent  salary,  which  he  has  been 
earning  now  for  four  or  five  years,  without  receiving  it." 

Mary  Bell  knew  she  mu&t  say  something.  ' '  He  certainly 
seems  to  work  very  hard."  I  do  not  think  John  Fisher  ob 
served  that  she  spoke  with  special  interest  or  difficulty.  But 
I  did.  Fisher  had  done  with  his  newspaper.  Every  one 
had  finished  breakfast.  And  as  he  rose  he  said,  "  I  should 
think  he  did.  Take  him  for  all  in  all,  Rossiter  is  one  of  the 
finest  fellows  who  tread  shoe-leather." 


CHAPTER    XXIV. 

nPHE  mystery,  if  I  may  call  it  so,  of  Mary  Bell's  crimson 
blush  was  revealed  to  me  before  night,  and  I  learned 
some  other  things  which,  had  I  been  wiser,  or  less  conceited, 
I  might  have  guessed  at  before. 


MY    FRIEND    THE    BOSS.  161 

I  had  vainly  tried  to  gain  a  private  interview  Avith  her. 
I  did  not  mean  to  be  foiled  by  Mrs.  Fisher,  as  I  had  been 
once  before,  when  I  had  thought  that  I  could  bring  Miss 
Bell  to  say  whether  she  cared  for  me  more  than  for  any  other 
man,  and  whether  she  knew  that  life  was  very  little  to  me, 
unless  it  were  all  knit  in  with  the  thought  of  her. 

But  Miss  Bell  was  out  almost  all  day  to-day.  Nor  had 
there  been  any  excuse  by  which  I  could  attach  myself  to  her 
goings  or  comings. 

An  hour  before  tea-time,  as  I  was  writing  in  my  own  room, 
the  servant  brought  me  a  card.  Mr.  Rossiter  was  down 
stairs  and  would  like  to  see  me. 

AVhat  in  the  world  did  he  want  to  see  me  for  ?  If  there 
was  any  one  in  the  world  whom  I  did  not  want  to  see  it  was 
Mr.  Rossiter.  I  had  even  fondly  wished  that  Mr.  Fisher, 
with  that  same  long  arm  of  his,  which  had  sent  to  Antwerp 
a  candidate  who  stood  in  the  way  of  reform,  might  take  up 
George  Rossiter  and  lift  him  to  Yokohama,  and  establish 
him  there  permanently  at  the  head  of  a  Life  company.  More 
than  once,  when  the  carnal  man  was  to  much  for  me,  had  I 
felt  willing  to  wring  George  Rossiter's  neck  and  throw  his 
head  out  of  the  window.  Yet  I  knew  he  was  an  excellent 
fellow.  I  could  even  see  he  was  a  most  agreeable  man.  If  it 
had  not  been  so,  I  should  have  liked  him  better ;  strange  to 
say,  I  had  never  got  well  over  my  surprise  when  Miss  Bell 
sent  for  him  on  an  exigency.  Why  could  not  I  do  as  well 
as  he? 

What  did  Mr.  Rossiter  want  of  me  now? 

He  was  not  in  the  parlors.  The  servant  led  me  to  what 
we  called  the  small  book-room. 


162  MY   FRIEND    THE    BOSS. 

Rossiter  met  me,  a  little  pale,  but  with  a  smile  which 
tried  to  be  cordial.  Still  it  was  clear  that  he  was  high- 
strung,  and  that  he  was  ill  at  ease. 

"  I  asked  them — I  told  them  to  show  me  here,  because 
— yes,  well — because  I  wanted  to  speak  with  you  alone." 

I  happened  to  remember  that  only  a  few  days  before  Mrs. 
Fisher  sailed  in  on  me  in  one  of  the  elegant  satin  saloons, 
where  I  had  never  seen  any  one  in  the  daytime  before.  I 
said,  gravely,  that  we  should  be  alone  here  unless  Mrs. 
Fisher  came  in. 

He  smiled,  with  rather  a  sickly  smile. 

"Mr.  Mellen,"  he  said,  "really  you  must  pardon  me. 
You  will  not  understand  my  coming  to  you  as  I  do.  But  I 
am  strangely  without  friends  here  in  Tamworth.  In  my 
own  home,  in  Binghamton,  I  should  have  more  than  one 
person  to  turn  to." 

"  Heavens  !"  I  said  to  myself,  "  this  fine  young  fellow  is 
hard  up,  and  wants  to  borrow  money."  Ah  !  if  it  had  been 
that,  I  should  have  known  what  to  say  then. 

He  evidently  spoke  with  difficulty  ;  had  found  difficulty  in 
bringing  himself  to  speak.  But  he  was  resolute,  and  meant 
to  put  through  what  he  had  to  say,  difficulty  or  no. 

"I  asked  for  Miss  Bell,"  he  said,  "but  she  is  not  in. 
Do  you  know  where-she  is  gone,  or  if  she  will  be  in  soon?" 

This  was  cool,  to  say  the  least,  and  it  took  me  on  a  weak 
spot.  But  I  did  not  mean  to  give  myself  away.  I  answered, 
with  as  little  fierceness  as  possible,  that  I  did  not  know.  I 
conquered  the  temptation  to  say,  "I  thought  you  were  the 
man  who  knew  her  plans  ;  I  do  not  interfere  with  them." 

"  It  is  foolish  in  me  to  ask,"  he  said.     "But  drowning 


MY    FRIEND    THE    BOSS.  163 

men  catch  at  straws.  I  want  to  see  her.  I  want  to  see  her 
to-day.  And  yet,"  he  said  after  a  pause,  "  I  do  not  know 
that  I  ought  to  see  her,  and  that  is  the  reason  why  I  made 
courage  to  send  for  you,  Mr.  Mellen.  I  say  I  made  courage, 
for  I  certainly  had  none  to  spare." 

I  was  amazed,  and  began  to  be  curious.  Nay,  I  had  cer 
tain  hopes.  Had  Mary  Bell  rejected  his  suit,  and  was  he 
going  to  consult  her  or  me  as  to  whether  he  should  cut  his 
throat  or  drink  laudanum? — I  bowed,  with  that  fatuous,  be 
nevolent  look  of  a  man  who  is  complimented  when  his  ad 
vice  is  asked,  does  not  wonder  that  it  is  asked,  and  his  bow 
and  smile  intimates  that  he  will  give  advice,  now  it  is  asked, 
of  the  very  first  quality.  Mr.  Rossiter  went  on  : 

"  It  is  absurd  for  me  to  suppose  that  you  do  not  know — 
every  one  knows  and  may  well  know  for  all  me — how 
entirely  I  admire  Miss  Bell.  To  you,  Mr.  Mellen,  who  are 
I  know,  my  friend,  it  is  almost  a  pleasure  to  say  it  aloud — 
to  hear  myself  saying  it — that  she  is  the  noblest  woman  and  the 
dearest  in  the  world,  though  she  gives  me  no  chance  to  say 
so  to  her,  and  though  I  do  not  know  if  she  cares  a  straw  for 
me." 

There  was  this  resemblance  between  Mr.  Rossiter's  posi 
tion  and  mine  that  I  could  not  but  be  half  amused  even 
while  I  was  provoked,  that  he  should  bring  me  to  this  un 
usual  and  unnecessary  confidence.  Was  every  stripling  who 
admired  Mary  Bell  to  come  and  tell  me  so  ?  I  should  have 
my  hands  full.  But  I  had  no  disposition  to  say  this  or  any 
thing  unkind  to  him.  Nay,  the  thought  flashed  across  me, 
and  for  an  instant  it  was  rapture,  that  he  had  detected  in 
his  close  watch  of  her  that  she  prized  some  other  man 


164  MT    FRIEND    THE    BOSS. 

more  than  she  did  him,  and  that,  with  a  manliness  which  I 
had  heard  of  in  romances,  the  fine  fellow  had  come  to  say  so. 

Under  this  fleeting  thought  I  listened  to  him  with  much 
more  interest. 

"  The  truth  is,  Mr.  Mellen,  that  I  have  had  no  right,  till 
to-day,  to  make  any  advances  to  Miss  Bell.  She  has  been 
kind  to  me,  she  is  kind  to  every  one.  But  she  treats  me 
— well — she  treats  me  as  she  treats  Mr.  Fisher,  or  you,  Mr. 
Mellen,  or  any  other  gentleman  whom  she  respects.  Now, 
to-day,  I  have  a  right  to  speak  to  her.  Had  I  found  her  at 
home,  I  should  have  known  before  now,  and  I  should  not 
trouble  you.  But  you  are  older  than  I — you  know  men 

and  women — you  are  not  in  love "  And  here  he  tried 

to  laugh,  with  that  sickly  failure  that  he  made  before. 

"You  will  tell  me,  I  think,  fairly  and  kindly,  whether 
what  I  have  to  say  to  her  is  absurd."  He  gave  me  no  chance 
to  answer.  "Till  to-day,"  he  said,  "  I  have  been  living 
from  week  to  week  on  a  copying  clerk's  salary.  If  Mr. 
Shearman  came  back,  I  might  be  discharged  any  instant, 
if  he  wanted  my  place  for  a  son  or  a  nephew.  To-day  all 
is  changed.  The  directors  offered  me,  an  hour  since,  a  fix 
ed  salary  of  fifteen  hundred  dollars.  The  moment  the  office 
closed,  I  came  to  ask  Miss  Bell  to  share  it  with  me,  and  to 
be  the  joy  and  light  of  my  life.  Now,  tell  me,  is  this  ab 
surd  ?  Have  I  any  right  to  ask  such  a  woman  as  that  to 
give  me  everything,  when  I  can  give  her  so  little  ?" 

Really,  till  that  moment,  I  had  thought,  fool  that  I  was : 
first,  that  in  an  impulse  of  generosity  the  young  man  was  going 
to  tell  me  that  the  field  was,  perhaps,  mine  ;  and  when  that 
thought  faded  away,  I  had  thought  that  lie  was  going  to  ask 


MY    FRIEND    THE    BOSS.  165 

if  it  were  mine,  that  he  might  be  spared  mortification.  And 
it  seemed  that  neither  thought  had  crossed  his  mind  ! 

Possibly  it  was  I  that  was  the  fool,  and  not  he. 

I  had  to  say  something,  such  are  the  exigencies  of  con 
versation.  And  I  did  say,  "What  can  I  tell  you?  Why 
do  you  come  to  me  ?  "  I  think  he  was  too  eager  to  see  that 
I  was  cool. 

' '  To  you  ?  I  come  to  you  because  you  are  kind  to  me 
always  ;  you  are  older  and  have  experience  ;  you  see  the 
game  from  the  outside  and  you  can  tell.  Mark  you,  I  do 
not  ask  whether  Miss  Bell  will  accept  me.  That  she  must 
tell  me  herself.  I  want  to  know  whether  a  poor  clerk,  with 
fifteen  hundred  a  year,  has  any  right  to  ask  her.  She  is  com 
fortable,  she  is  happy.  Is  it  an  insult  to  ask  her  to  leave  a  life 
of  luxury  such  as  Mr.  Fisher  gives  her  here,  to  share  a  life 
of  work  and — well,  not  privation,  but  economy,  parsimony, 
if  you  please,  like  mine?  You  know  the  world.  You  know 
what  men  expect  and  women  expect.  Am  I  a  fool  to  ask  ? 
Is  it  wrong  to  ask?  When  she  was  not  here,  I  thought  I 
might  strengthen  myself  by  asking  you." 

The  poor  dog  had  come  to  ask  me,  because  I  was  an  un 
prejudiced  adviser !  I  was  sitting  serene  on  the  heights 
above  such  follies,  and  could  not  be  warped  by  any  ten 
derness  !  Had  it  come  to  this  ?  I  looked  round  to  see  if 
there  was  a  mirror,  to  find  if  he  had  rated  me  at  seventy 
or  at  eighty.  Once  more  I  parried  his  eager  question. 

"  Ask  her  by  all  means,  if  you  feel  as  you  do.  You  can 
put  to  her  your  own  questions.  Or  Mrs.  Grattan,  might 
you  not  advise  with  her  ?" 

"Mrs.   Grattan!     Do  not    play  with    me,  Mr.  Mellen. 


166  MY   FRIEND   THE    BOSS. 

You  must  understand  me.  "When  you  asked  your  wife  to 
marry  you,  did  you,  could  you  say  to  her  that,  because  you 
loved  her,  you  wanted  her  to  share — well,  as  humble  a  life 
as  a  man  could  well  live  in,  with  such  means  as  I  offer  this 
lady?" 

"  As  to  that,"  said  I,  rather  grandly  this  time,  "  there  is 
no  Mrs.  Mellen,  so  that  I  cannot  answer  your  question  as 
you  put  it.  There  never  has  been  any.  But  this  is  certain, 
my  dear  Mr.  Rossiter.  Women  do  not  think  of  such  things 
as  men  do.  Go  and  ask  her  yourself.  That  is  her  right ; 
nay,  it  is  yours.  If  Miss  Bell  loves  you,  she  will  marry  you, 
though  your  income  be  the  dividend  on  two  cents  invested  in 
Arkansas  bonds."  His  face  beamed  on  me,  as  if  it  had 
been  the  face  of  an  angel.  "  If  she  do  not  love  you,  you 
will  find  it  out.  She  will  not  give  you  a  hint  of  encourage 
ment,  not  if  your  salary  be  as  much  as  Mr.  Vanderbilt's 
capital. 

"  No,  dear  Mr.  Eossiter,  it  is  a  thing  where  no  man  can 
advise,  not  even  a  man  as  old  and  as  experienced  as  I." 

Did  he  see  that  he  had  wounded  me?  Or  was  he  so 
eager  in  the  hope  of  meeting  her  that  the  interview  already 
annoyed  him,  though  he  had  brought  it  on? 

I  do  not  know.  I  only  know  that  he  rose,  thanked  me 
cordially  and  went  away. 

And  I  was  left  to  reflect,  that  all  my  delicate  attentions  to 
Miss  Bell  had  been  so  very  delicate  that  an  intelligent 
young  man,  keen  and  quick  to  observe,  had  not  so  much  as 
noticed  them ;  that  while  I  had  hated  him  as  a  rival,  almost 
since  I  saw  him,  he  had  never  dreamed  that  I  was  in  the 
race ;  and  to  recollect  that  it  had  been  squarely  said  to  me 


MY   FRIEND    THE    BOSS.  167 

that  I  had  passed  too  far  along  in  the  course  of  life,  that  I 
was  not  to  be  counted  as  interested  in  its  passion.  I  had 
been  distinctly  told  that  I  was  henceforth  not  a  participator 
but  a  judge  or  an  adviser. 

If  he  thought  that,  what  would  Miss  Bell  think  and  say  ? 

I  could  not  read,  after  this.  I  could  not  write.  After 
chafing  over  it  for  an  hour,  I  determined  to  walk  out,  and 
take  my  chances  of  meeting  her  on  her  return. 

I  did  meet  her.  But  he  had  met  her  before  me.  They 
were  talking  together  in  the  most  animated  way.  But  I 
could  not  catch  his  eye  as  they  passed  me. 


CHAPTER    XXV. 

A  ND  at  last  Tuesday  came,  the  fatal  Teusday  which  was  to 
decide  between  THEM  and  us  ;  between  cheap  govern 
ment  and  reckless  waste  :  between  a  quiet  town,  minding  its 
own  business,  and  the  rowdyism  and  recklessness  and  plund 
er  of  It. 

Of  course  I  had  no  vote,  nor  had  little  Stepney,  who  had 
spent  the  night  with  us,  having  come  over  to  speak  at  the 
farewell  mass  meeting  of  the  night  before.  But  John  Fisher 
drove  us  both  down  town,  at  eight  in  the  morning,  in  the 
open  wagon,  which  he  was  to  use  all  day.  He  gave  himself 
personally  to  the  canvass,  and  we  had  all  breakfasted  early, 
that  he  might  be  at  his  precinct  at  the  very  beginning.  The 
ladies,  excepting  Mrs.  Fisher,  who  sent  word  that  she  had  a 
bad  headache,  were  with  us.  And  before  the  day  was  over, 


168  MY   FRIEND   THE    BOSS. 

I  found  it  was  quite  as  busy  a  day  with  them,  as  with  the 
men. 

At  Fisher's  precinct  everything  was  quiet  at  that  hour, 
but  the  forces  were  gathering.  On  window- seats  in  the 
corners  of  the  room  were  already  piles  of  "  stickers," — 
separate  ballots  for  individuals,  with  gum  on  the  back  that 
they  might  at  once  be  fastened  over  the  printed  names  on 
regular  tickets.  I  saw  bottles  of  mucilage,  ready  for  similar 
use,  left  by  one  or  another  Independent  voter,  who  wanted 
to  facilitate  Independency,  and  ran  the  risk  of  its  telling 
against  his  friends.  The  vote  distributors  of  the  several 
parties  were  on  perfectly  good  terms  with  each  other ;  I 
fancy,  indeed,  that  in  that  precinct,  IT  had  put  forward  its 
best-appearing  men,  in  the  hopes  to  conciliate  a  few  votes 
from  bolters  who  would  not  respect  the  final  decisions  of 
"Ouii"  committee.  There  was  no  wrangling  there,  and 
Fisher  told  me  afterwards,  that  there  was  none  all  day. 
Even  at  this  early  hour  a  hackney  coach  would  arrive  once 
in  every  few  minutes,  from  which  descending  a  neatly- 
dressed  rallying  man,  with  our  colors,  blue  and  white,  in  his 
button-hole,  would  carefully  lift  out  a  lame  man,  or  a  man 
with  his  face  tied  up  in  a  handkerchief,  once  a  man  ac 
companied  by  two  daughters,  who,  in  quite  dramatic  fashion, 
attended  the  invalid  to  the  rail,  where  he  dropped  his  vote. 
Then  the  two  Hebes  looked  scornfully  at  us  men,  as  if  to 
say,  "  Why  did  you  not  let  us  vote  in  his  place?"  For 
my  part  I  did  not  know,  and  do  not,  why  we  had  not  sent  a 
man  to  his  door,  with  a  book  in  which  he  could  register  his 
vote  over  his  autograph  signature. 

Stepney  and  I  staid  long  enough  to  see  the  mechanism  of 


MY   FRIEND    THE    BOSS.  169 

the  thing,  which  almost  always  differs  a  little  in  one  state 
from  another.  As  we  walked  away,  we  passed,  what  I  had 
not  noticed  before,  the  Woman's  Rallying  Office.  A  little 
blue  and  white  flag  hung  over  the  door  with  the  invitation 
"  Come  in,"  and  what  Avas  more  certain,  two  bright  girls  on 
the  door-step  said,  "Will  you  not  have  a  cup  of  coffee?" 

We  both  went  in,  and  sure  enough,  there  were  a  dozen 
little  tables,  with  our  ballots  scattered  over  them,  a  vase  of 
gentians  and  candy-tuft  on  each  table,  and  at  least  half  of 
them,  men  sitting,  who  had  been  lured  in  by  these  sirens, 
and.  perhaps,  by  the  memory  of  faultless  coffee,  served  there 
in  years  before.  Behind  a  counter  at  the  end  of  the  room, 
I  saw  several  ladies  whom  I  knew,  among  others  Mrs. 
Grattan  and  Miss  Bell.  They  were  all  dressed  in  uniform, 
with  natty  white  caps  and  aprons,  with  rosettes  of  blue  and 
white.  "  Pretty  waiter-girls,"  from  the  very  best  ranks  of 
Tamworth  social  order,  were  flying  backward  and  forward 
and  filling  the  cups  of  the  men  who  were  talking  politics. 
Mrs.  Tristum  beckoned  us  to  join  a  group  of  ladies  who 
w^re  sitting  near  the  door. 

"Have  you  come  to  help  us,  or  are  you  only  loafers?" 
said  she.  "  If  you  will  help,  you  shall  have  coffee,  though 
you  are  but  poor  sticks  anyway,  both  of  you,  seeing  you  had 
no  more  votes  then  women.  But  you  shall  each  have  one 
cup,  in  memory  of  last  night's  speeches.  Mr.  Stepney,  you 
converted  one  man.  I  heard  him  say  this  morning,  that 
that  little  fellow  who  told  the  war-story  fixed  him." 

I  asked  what  they  were  doing,  and  what  they  were  ex 
pecting. 

"  My  dear   Mr.  Mellen,  we   are   at  least  showing   our 


170  MY   FRIEND   THE    BOSS. 

colors,  and  that  is  one  comfort.  We  are  not  chafing  at 
home,  and  wondering  how  the  battle  goes.  Then  we  have 
an  eye  on  things  here.  There  is  not  a  young  lawyer,  nor  a 
young  doctor,  nor  a  young  engineer,  nor  a  young  dry-goods 
clerk  in  this  ward  who  will  forget  to  vote  to-day.  Some 
woman  would  say  to  him,  the  first  time  she  met  him,  'We 
might  have  lost  the  fourth  ward  by  one  vote,  Mr.  Smith  ; 
pray  where  were  you  ?  '  So  far  we  do  something.  What  is 
more,  is,  that  we  do  catch  an  undecided  man  sometimes,  and 
we  make  him  see  that  there  can  be  a  decent  drinking-room 
without  It ;  at  least  he  sees  that  decent  people  are  in  earnest," 

And  she  told  me  that  I  should  find  a  rallying  room  like 
hers  at  any  precinct ;  there  were  forty-four  in  all.  They 
had  done  this,  now  for  three  years,  and  were  sure  good  came 
of  it.  The  men  on  duty  told  them  so.  In  fact,  before  the 
day  was  over,  I  guessed  that  there  were  a  good  many  more 
"  men  on  duty"  than  there  would  be  had  there  not  been 
such  comfortable  quarters  for  them.  "You  can  take  your 
lunch  here,  you  know,"  said  Frank  Heron  to  me  about  noon. 
But  it  did  seem  to  me  that  he  was  more  interested  in  that 
pretty  Clara  Orth,  than  he  was  in  the  lunch  he  was  waiting 
for. 

Things  were  by  no  means  so  Arcadian  and  elegant  in 
other  wards,  Before  the  day  was  over,  Stepney  and  I  look 
ed  in  upon  almost  every  precinct ;  though  we  missed  some, 
we  were  in  every  ward,  and  saw  almost  all  the  humorous, 
not  to  say  passionate  struggles  of  the  day.  It  had  its  head 
quarters,  as  well  as  We  ;  and  if  whiskey  and  lager  were  paid 
for,  it  was  certainly  not  by  retail  payment  at  these  places. 
J  could  see  here,  however,  that  there  was  method  in  the 


MY    FRIEND    THE    BOSS.  171 

madness  which  ruled  there.  More  than  once,  when  some 
drunken  dog  stepped  up,  with  his  most  dignified  air,  to  the 
man  who  dispensed  one  drink  or  another,  his  hopes  were 
sharply,  not  to  say  profanely,  crushed.  "  What  business 
had  he  there,  when  he  had  neglected  to  register,  or  had 
never  been  naturalized?" 

Free  liquor  was  not  for  men  without  votes.  It  drew  the 
line  somewhere,  and  It  drew  it  there.  Indeed,  I  was  amus 
ed  to  see  how  much  care  was  exercised  in  such  matters.  It 
seemed  as  if  there  was  fear  that  the  supplies  might  give 
out. 

In  Boston,  they  used  to  let  them  have  a  keg  of  beer  be 
hind  the  voting-rail,  for  the  use  of  the  inspectors  of  votes, 
so  that  they  might  keep  their  sight  clear  to  the  end,  and 
their  faculties  for  counting.  But  this  was  not  tolerated  in 
the  simpler  conditions  of  Tamworth. 

In  three  different  wards,  we  saw  a  very  pretty  fete,  as 
Jan  Hooft,  at  the  head  of  the  wire-men,  who  made  a  regi 
ment  of  nearly  four  hundred,  came  round,  that  the  men 
might  vote  together.  The  regiment,  if  I  may  call  it  so, 
escorted  in  this  manner  its  own  members  to  the  several 
precincts.  I  was  told  that  they  had  men  in  eleven  different 
precincts,  and  they  went  to  all.  These  men,  only  the  year 
before,  had  scattered  their  votes  among  all  the  candidates. 
But  Jan's  brilliant  speech  had  made  him  a  hero.  Some 
injudicious  thing  said  about  Dutchmen,  by  a  Norwegian 
orator,  had  closed  up  the  ranks  of  the  Sons  of  Holland,  so 
that  they  voted  as  one  man  ;  and  here  were  all  the  workmen 
from  Kellert's  establishment,  and  from  the  Cooperative, 
wearing  blue  gentians  tied  with  white  ribbon,  and  march- 


172  MY    FRIEND    THE    BOSS. 

ing  with  a  band  of  music  to  vote  our  ticket  in  their  respect 
ive  wards.  Salter  had  taken  very  little  by  his  motion  the 
evening  when  he  called  Jan  Hooft  forward  as  a  leader  of 
the  people. 

The  women  knew  about  what  time  this  cohort  would 
appear  in  each  ward.  And  they  made  special  preparation  for 
its  arrival.  It  was  not  to  be  expected  that  it  should  break 
ranks  so  long  that  the  men  could  take  turns  in  drinking  in 
doors.  Indeed,  I  hope  nobody  expected  that  each  of  four 
hundred  men  should  drink  forty-four  cups  of  anything  as 
that  day  went  round.  But,  with  stronger  force  than  that  of 
"pretty  waiter-girls,"  they  "policed"  a  part  of  their  side 
walk,  and  had  tubs  of  lemonade,  and  pails  of  coifee,  ready 
mixed  with  its  milk  and  sugar,  so  that  as  the  procession  halted, 
.and  the  platoons  for  that  place  voted,  the  men  in  the  others 
stepped  out  and  refreshed  themselves.  Perhaps  cockades 
or  button-hole  bouquets  were  pinned  on  at  the  same  time,  by 
canvassers,  in  defiance  of  civil  service  regulations.  Jan 
Hooft  himself,  before  the  day  was  over,  was  one  moving 
mass  of  white  and  blue. 

Once  and  again,  as  the  day  went  by,  we  met  John  Fisher 
himself,  as  he  brought  to  the  polls  some  man  of  lonely  work, 
who  would  hardly  have  left  his  little  office  or  his  lonely 
store,  and  locked  the  door,  to  sacrifice  to  his  country  the 
chance  of  the  customer  who  might  come  in  his  absence  of 
half  an  hour. 

But  it  was  quite  a  different  thing  when  John  Fisher 
came  round  to  his  place  cheerily  :  "  How  is  business,  Mr. 
Broadcloth?  "  or,  "All  right,  Dr.  Molar;  I  have  brought 
you  my  friend  Mr.  Titus,  who  will  stay,  and  see  that  nobody 


MY    FRIEND    THE    BOSS.  173 

steals  anything,  till  we  come  back.  We  will  soon  get  you 
to  the  polls."  Indeed,  neither  Mr.  Broadcloth  nor  Dr. 
Molar  was  displeased  to  have  a  chance  to  drive  behind 
John  Fisher's  bays,  and  to  discuss  the  political  chances 
with  him.  On  his  part,  he  was  as  well  pleased  to  test  in  a 
day  the  real  feeling  of  the  bone  and  sinew  of  the  communi 
ty  which  he  was  trying  to  serve. 

There  had  been  no  announcement  at  breakfast  of  any 
hour  for  lunch  at  home.  It  seemed  to  be  expected  that  we 
should  find  our  meat  and  drink  where  we  did  our  work. 
And  that  day  no  one  in  our  little  circle  affected  to  attend  to 
anything  but  this  election.  Fisher  told  me  that  his  works 
were  open,  and  the  engines  running  all  day.  "  But 
then,"  he  said,  "every  man  is  allowed  four  hours  for 
voting,  and  they  are  as  much  excited  about  it — well,  as  I 
am  ;  so  that  we  shall  not  show  a  great  deal  of  '  subduing 
brute  matter,'  as  I  think  you  call  it,  in  to-day's  work  there. 
The  brute  matter  we  shall  subdue  to-day  is  somewhere 
else." 

The  day  Avas  fine,  and  there  was  no  pretence  that  bad 
weather  kept  any  one  at  home.  As  sundown  drew  near, 
lugubrious  peals  on  the  church  bells  summoned  any  lag 
gards,  as  if  to  a  funeral.  But  there  were  but  few  laggards. 
I  happened  to  be,  however,  at  a  precinct  which  was  just 
opposite  the  Grand  Junction  station  of  the  Cattaraugus 
and  Opelousas  Road,  when  this  tolling  began.  An  instant 
more  and  I  heard  cheering,  and,  with  Stepney,  I  ran  out 
from  Miss  Water's  comfortable  head-quarters  to  see  what 
was  passing.  An  engine,  without  baggage  car,  and  with 
only  one  passenger  car  attached,  engine  and  car  both  fes- 


174  MY  FRIEND   THE   BOSS. 

tooned  with  blue  and  white,  dashed  in,  amid  the  cheers  of 
fifty  people.  Some  twenty  young  men,  wearing  our  colors, 
jumped  out.  They  had  engaged  this  special  car  to  brinur 
them  from  Chicago,  so  that  they  might  arrive  two  hours 
before  the  regular  train,  and  a  few  minutes  before  the  polls 
closed.  A  dozen  wagons  were  waiting  to  take  them  to 
their  precincts.  Much  opening  and  shutting  of  watches 
made  it  clear  that,  even  at  number  three  in  Ward  VII,  they 
would  be  in  time.  They  all  dashed  off  amid  the  cheers  of 
admiring  loafers,  the  crowd  melted  away,  and  the  station 
was  left  as  dull  and  stupid  as  it  usually  was. 

Stepney  and  I  waited  to  see  the  votes  counted,  and  sealed, 
and  to  hear  the  public  proclamation  made  in  that  precinct. 
When  the  messenger  was  dispatched  to  the  central  precinct 
in  that  ward,  we  walked  across  to  Ward  IV  where  we  had 
begun  the  day.  Fisher  was  waiting  for  us.  "  There  is  no 
good  of  staying  here  any  longer,"  he  said  ;  "  we  shall  know 
the  news  at  home  sooner  than  we  shall  here."  I  saw  he 
was  disturbed,  in  a  moment.  For  me,  I  had  been  made 
thoroughly  cheerful  by  the  activity  of  the  day,  and,  in  my 
optimistic  way,  I  had  taken  for  granted  that  so  much  good 
work  on  the  right  side  could  not  have  been  done  in  vain. 
As  we  rode  home  I  sounded  him.  But  he  could  not  well 
tell  why  he  was  anxious.  In  that  ward  all  was  well.  But 
they  had  known  it  would  be.  It  had  done  better,  for  that 
matter,  than  their  canvass  promised.  4  All  the  high  and  dry 
people,  who  would  not  help  in  the  canvass  at  all,  because 
they  were  so  bigoted  about  purity  of  elections,  and  who 
would  not  commit  themselves  in  advance,  lest  on  the  morn 
ing  of  the  election,  some  angel  froxn  heaven  should  tell  them 


MY    FRIEND    THE    BOSS.  175 

that  drunkenness  and  lying  and  stealing  were  cardinal 
virtues,  all  these  people  had,  at  the  last,  voted  with  "  Us," 
so  that  the  returns  looked  better  than  our  canvassers  dared 
to  predict.  ''  But  this  was  no  evidence,  not  the  least,"  he 
said,  "  for  the  out-lying  wards."  Whether  he  had  private 
advice  of  which  he  would  .not  speak,  or  whether  this  was 
the  depression  which  comes  over  a  strong  man,  because  he 
cannot  be  everywhere,  I  could  not  guess.  But  it  aifected 
us  all  three.  And,  after  a  little  effort,  we  drove  home  in 
silence. 


CHAPTER  XXVI. 

But,  as  we  turned  into  the  avenue,  with  the  change  of 
scene  our  spirits  rose  at  once. 

Mrs.  Fisher,  and  Cordelia  Grattan,  and  Miss  Bell,  were  all 
on  the  portico,  waving  handkerchiefs.  The  flag  had  been 
flying  on  the  top  of  the  house  all  day.  But  a  smaller  flag 
was  now  twined  in,  somehow,  with  the  vines  on  the  trellis. 
And,  as  we  came  near  enough  to  hear,  Mary  Bell  cried, 
' '  Victory  !  Victory  !  "  We  did  not  know  what  they  were 
cheering  about.  But,  as  John  Fisher  threw  his  reins  to  the 
groom,  she  gave  him  a  despatch.  "  All  is,  we  have  carried 
the  Bloody  Third,"  she  cried,  "  and  you  owe  it  to  the 
women  !  " 

"Carried  the  Third?"  said  John  Fisher  with  scorn. 
"  Give  us  news  that  we  can  believe  for  a  second,  at  least." 

"  Read,  read,  read !  incredulous  man  !  Read  it  on  the 
housetops."  And  he  read  aloud  : 


176  MY   FRIEND    THE    BOSS. 

"I  hope  that  I  am  the  first  to  tell  you  that  we  have  car 
ried  the  Third  by  seven  votes.  They  could  not  stand 
against  the  women,  to  whom  we  owe  nineteen  votes  at 
least.  I  will  come  up  and  tell  you  when  the  votes  are 
sealed.  GEORGE  ROSSITER." 

"  Who  is  this  to?"  said  John  Fisher. 

"It  is  to  me,"  said  Mary  Bell,  proudly  enough,  though 
perhaps  provoked  a  little,  both  with  herself  and  with 
him,  that  he  had  forced  the  avowal.  But  the  joy  of 
the  moment  was  something  behind  and  beyond  all  personal 
annoyances. 

"  Carried  the  Third !  "  repeated  Fisher,  almost  as  if  he 
talked  to  himself.  "  Miracles  are  beginning!  I  should  as 
soon — and  Rossiter  must  be  right.  He  is  an  inspector 
there,  with  two  of  these  hounds  against  him.  They  would 
have  died  hard.  But  Rossiter  is  never  fooled.  Carried  the 
Third,  indeed !  " 

And  he  ran  in,  to  his  own  telephone-box. 

"  Hello  !  Give  me  219."     Then,  after  a  pause  : 

' '  Who  is  there  ?  "     And  again  : 

"Ask  Frank  if  he  knows  we  have  carried  the  Third." 
And  after  Frank's  reply,  inaudible  to  us,  he  continued : 

•'  It  is  impossible,  but  all  the  same  we  have  done  it.  We 
have  seven  majority."  Another  pause,  while  he  listened, 
and  then  he  said 

"  No  ;  there  is  no  possible  mistake.  Rossiter  is  there, 
and  we  have  this  from  him." 

In  an  instant  this  miracle  had  changed  the  man.  "I 
hope  you  asked  your  friend  to  dine,  Mary.  The  man  who 
sends  us  such  news  ought  to  be  crowned  with  laurels." 


MY   FKIEND   THE   BOSS.  177 

And  when  she  said  that  she  had  done  no  such  thing, 
he  sent  a  servant  to  the  public  telephone  with  a  message  to 
Mr.  Rossiter  that  he  must  come  up  as  soon  as  they  could 
spare  him.  He  would  not  use  his  own  wire  for  anything 
but  to  receive  news. 

Such  was  the  beginning  of  three  hours  of  intense  anxiety, 
and  curiosity,  hope  rising  and  hope  deferred  and  hope  pros 
trated  under  foot,  fear  and  surprise  alternating,  such  as  can 
not  be  forgotten,  but  as  I  cannot  pretend  to  describe.  By 
common  consent,  we  gathered  in  his  own  den,  where 
was  the  telephone  wire.  When  the  oracle  spoke  he 
was  almost  always  the  Python,  if  one  may  say  so, 
who  did  what  Pythonesses  should  do  when  oracles 
are  speaking.  But  sometimes  he  deputed  Mary  Bell,  if,  as 
would  happen,  he  was  writing  or  calculating,  when  the 
telephone  bell  rang. 

The  first  news  was  a  set  of  black  reactions  from  Rossiter's 
jubilant  despatch.  Mrs.  Edwards  had  furnished  late  after 
noon  tea,  and  we  were  still  discussing  the  possible  causes  of 
our  success  in  the  Bloody  Third,  when  from  precinct  some 
thing  in  the  Fifth  comes  this  dark  omen : 

"We  are  nineteen  behind  our  canvass.  They  are 
seventy-two  ahead  of  theirs.  No  one  knows  why." 

"  Can  you  give  us  the  figures?"  Fisher  replied. 

"  Two  ninety-seven ;  five  thirty-one ;  nineteen  scatter 
ing." 

There  seemed  to  be  no  necessity  to  tell  for  whom  these 
numbers  had  voted.  Nor  was  there.  Fisher  wrote  them 
on  the  blank  sheet  he  had  ready  ruled  for  the  forty-lour  pre 
cincts. 


178  MY   FRIEND   THE    BOSS. 

"  Bad  enough,"  he  said  to  us.  "  For  the  other  precincts 
will  do  worse.  And  this  was  at  best  but  a  doubtful  ward." 
And  then,  with  his  tea,  again  he  tried  to  explain  to  Mrs. 
Grattan  what  was  the  matter  there,  when  the  bell  struck 
again. 

"  Worse  and  worse,"  he  said,  after  he  had  listened.  "  We 
shall  lose  another  hundred  in  the  Slab  Bridge  precinct. 
That  means  we  lose  the  Fifth  ward."  And  he  sat  down 
again  to  his  cooler  tea,  and  again  tried  to  explain. 

Mary  Bell  put  down  the  figures  on  the  sheet,  and  asked  : 
"  Perhaps  their  first  precinct  will  do  better.  May  I  not 
ask?" 

"Ask?  Oh,  no  !  It  would  only  bother  them.  Harts 
horn  is  there ;  he  will  tell  as  soon  as  he  has  anything  to  tell. 
He  is  making  them  count  again,  because  things  look  so 
badly.  He  has  heard  from  two,  and  three,  and  four. 
Four  is  of  no  great  account,  anyway." 

As  it  happened,  precinct  four  spoke  at  that  moment. 
And,  as  before,  he  repeated  the  figures.  She  wrote  them 
from  his  lips.  "  Two  hundred  ninety-one  ;  three  hundred 
seventy-four ;  twenty-one  scattering." 

"  Twenty-one  fools  in  that  precinct  and  only  nineteen  in 
William's.  How  do  you  account  for  that,  Mary?"  This 
was  Fisher's  grim  comment.  She  asked  what  she  should 
put  down  for  Slab  Bridge.  "  Oh,  nothing,  nothing,  till 
you  have  the  exact  numbers  !  These  guesses  are  nothing." 

Then  he  explained  to  me  and  to  Stepney,  seeing  that  we 
were  strangely  new  to  all  this,  that  of  course  we  generally 
received  the  news  from  the  small  precincts  first,  because 
those  are  most  easily  counted.  This  is  the  reason  why  the 


MY   FRIEND   THE    BOSS.  j.  /!> 

first  news  of  our  elections  is  so  often  undecisive,  or,  as  an 
ignorant  public  supposes,  not  confirmed  afterwards.  The 
news  is  true  enough.  But  the  small  precincts,  of  which  the 
vote  can  be  counted  most  quickly,  though  they  are  first 
reported,  are  not  usually  those  which  decide  things. 

' '  Not  but  that  a  small  precinct  may  be  the  last  to 
come  in.  They  may  have  a  bad  counting-board,  and 
one  man  may  make  things  come  out  211,  and  another  1102, 
and  so  you  may  have  to  begin  all  over  again.  If  you  have 
a  drunken  inspector,  or  a  man  who  likes  to  quarrel, 
you  may  be  all  night  before  the  votes  are  counted  and 
sealed. 

"  We  hold  to  the  old  New  England  traditions,"  he  said, 
"  and  we  count  the  votes  in  '  open  meeting,'  where  any  ono 
can  see.  Of  course  we  take  care  that,  in  each  precinct, 
three  or  four  men,  who  do  not  drink  or  steal  or  lie,  shall  be 
looking  on." 

At  this  moment  a  cab  rolled  up  to  the  door,  and  George 
Rossiter  joined  us.  Till  this  moment  I  had  permitted  my 
self  to  doubt  as  to  the  issue  of  his  walk  and  talk  t,he 
last  night  with  Miss  Bell.  But  from  this  moment  I  knew. 
Not  that  she  stepped  forward.  No.  She  stepped  back, 
Not  that  he  sought  her  even  with  his  eye.  But  that  his 
face  and  air  were  of  glad,  calm  certainty.  He  need  rot 
seek  her.  She  was  his,  without  more  seeking.  I  dared  to 
look  at  her.  Again  her  face  was  crimson.  But  her  smile 
of  welcome  was  of  absolute  pride  and  joy. 

"  Where  are  the  laurels  for  the  hero?"  This  was  John 
Fisher's  welcome.  And  he  gave  the  hero  both  hands. 

"I   do   not   see   why   I   should  be  called  the  hero.     I 


180  MY   FKIEND   THE    BOSS. 

only  bring  the  good  news.  The  heroes  are  Mr.  Stepney, 
who  makes  the  converts  ;  Mr.  Meilen  who  meets  the  enemy, 
and  you,  Mr.  Fisher,  who  direct  the  campaign." 

"As  to  that,"  said  poor  John  Fisher,  ruefully,  "  I  feel 
like  a  general  in  the  war,  when  the  scattered  fire  tells 
him  that  his  right  is  lost  in  the  fog,  and  his  left  has 
given  way.  Your  '  Bloody  Third  '  is  all  very  fine,  and  we 
thank  you  for  your  news.  But  what  if  we  lost  the 
Fifth?" 

"Lose  the  Fifth!"  cried  Rossiter.  "Impossible!  As 
well  tell  me  that  you  have  lost  the  Hill." 

Then  Mr.  Fisher  made  him  look  at  the  fatal  figures. 
And,  at  this  moment,  the  telephone  bell  rang,  and  other 
figures,  which  seemed  even  worse,  came  from  other  pre- 
cints.  George  Rossiter  entered  these,  very  silent,  on 
the  sheet  prepared.  He  looked  pale  with  distress  and 
surprise. 

"And  we  hear  of  nothing  from  our  friends,"  said  Mrs. 
Grattan,  because  she  wanted  to  say  something. 

"  No  need  to  hear  from  them.  Of  some  things  we 
are  sure,  or  ought  to  be.  As  sure  as  I  was  of  the  Hill  an 
hour  ago,  when  I  was  blue  enough,  while  we  were  rid 
ing  home,  Meilen."  This  was  Fisher's  grim  and  melan 
choly  answer.  "  What  is  it,  Bruce  ?  Is  Mrs.  Edwards  dead, 
or  has  the  kitchen  burned  down?  Bad  news  comes  at 
once." 

Bruce  smiled  respectfully,  and  announced  dinner. 

"Dinner?  It  is  an  hour  too  early."  But  no;  dinner 
had  come,  as  it  generally  will  come. 

"We  will  wait  on  ourselves,  Bruce.  Stay  here  and  call 
me  when  the  bell  rings." 


MY   FRIEND    THE    BOSS.  181 

So  we  went  in  to  dinner.  And  literally,  before  dinner 
was  over,  Fishpr  or  Rossiter  ran  to  seventeen  calls,  as  so 
many  different  precincts  announced  the  totals  which  were 
proclaimed  successively.  The  reader  should  understand 
that  when  this  proclamation  had  been  made  "  in  open  meet 
ing,"  a  certified  copy  of  it,  with  the  parcels  of  votes  sealed 
carefully,  were  sent  to  the  ward-room  of  the  ward, 
where  the  respective  ward  officers  prepared  the  full  state 
ment  of  the  result.  Sometimes  there  were  three  precincts 
in  a  ward,  sometimes  four,  and  sometimes  even  five. 

But  till  dinner  was  over,  though  we  had  twenty-nine 
precincts  of  the  forty-four  returned,  we  could  only  make  up 
two  ward  returns.  And  these,  oddly  enough,  reversed 
exactly  the  definite  canvass  on  which  we  had  placed  so 
much  reliance.  We  had  gained  the  "  Bloody  Third," 
which  nobody  expected  to  gain.  But  we  had  certainly 
lost  the  First,  which  we  carried  a  year  before,  and  had 
a  fair  chance  of  carrying  now.  The  breweries  had  been  too 
much  for  us. 

' '  They  naturalized  two  hundred  men  there  since 
August,"  said  Fisher,  "  and  there  has  been  free  lager  and 
free  whisky  on  tap  for  a  fortnight." 

Actually  at  half-past  eight  o'clock,  when  we  left  the  din 
ner  table,  where  we  had  spent  much  more  time  in  calculat 
ing  than  in  dining,  we  were  more  in  doubt  than  we  were 
when  we  breakfasted  that  morning.  And  this,  although  we 
knew  the  result  in  two-thirds  of  the  city. 

"It  is  just  the  other  third  which  we  do  not  know,"  said 
John  Fisher,  ruefully. 

We   gathered,  almost  of  course,   in  the  telephone  room 


182  MY    FRIEND    THE    BOSS. 

again,  as  if  there  were  any  satisfaction  in  being  a  few 
inches  nearer  to  the  whispers  which  sealed  our  fate.  We 
had  scarcely  entered,  when  the  bell  rang.  Fisher  put 
his  ear  to  the  voice. 

"  It  is  Harkness,"  he  said,  laughing.  And  then  his  face 
kept  the  smile  as  it  listened.  He  put  his  mouth  to  the  tube 
and  said,  "Good  for  the  loyal  Seventh!  Such  figures 
were  never  heard  of!  My  love  and  congratulations  to  Dr. 
Witherspoon,  and  to  yourself,  my  dear  boy."  Then  he 
listened,  and  in  reply  said,  "  We  cannot  tell,  but  you  have 
done  your  part.  Good-by." 

"  Such  figures  were  never  heard  of,"  he  said  again,  as 
he  turned  to  the  paper  and  put  them  down,  taking  Hark- 
ness's  full  return,  and  caring  no  longer  for  the  votes  of  separate 
precincts.  "WE"  had  2897,  and  "THEY"  had  only  674. 
"  See,  Mellen,  one  ward  giving  thirty-six  hundred  votes, 
when  the  whole  city  will  not  give  thirty  thousand.  There 
is  a  gerrymander  for  you.  Because  the  pirates  know  we 
could  poll  four  to  their  one  there.  Thirty-six  hundred 
and  ninety  votes  in  all.  And  they  have  not  in  the  ward 
thirty-eight  hundred  on  their  register.  That  is  what  hap 
pens  when  Col.  Stothers  is  willing  to  soil  his  gloves,  and 
Dr.  Witherspoon  to  stand  as  alderman." 

And  at  this  moment  we  heard  a  carriage  drive  up  at  the 
door.  No  one  rang.  The  door  flew  open,  and  Mr. 
Jackson  rushed  in,  unannounced.  I  had  seen  him  at  the 
house  at  more  than  one  gathering. 

"  Have  you  heard — do  you  know?  I  asked  Williams  to 
let  me  bring  the  news.  That  is  why  he  did  not  speak." 

"  We  have  heard  a  great  deal,"  said  Fisher.  "  Some 
things  we  did  not  want  to  hear," 


MY   FRIEND   THE    BOSS.  183 

"We  have  the  Fifth  after  all!  Sixteen  clear  majority 
over  everything  !  They  were  sure  of  it,  and  we  gave  it  up, 
after  Slab  Bridge  caved  in  so  awfully.  But  your  Dutch 
friends,  Mrs.  Fisher,  came  up  magnificently  in  that  little 
precinct  by  Ofterdorn's  brewery.  That  precinct  gave  us 
three  hundred  square,  where  we  expected  less  than  nothing, 
and  the  Fifth  is  clean  ours,  aldermen,  pig-wardens,  school- 
committee,  and  all.  Mrs.  Fisher,  the  victory  is  yours." 

Poor  Mrs.  Fisher  was  of  all  colors  ;  so  was  John  Fisher. 
Mary  Bell  was  blazing  red,  and  Cordelia  Grattan  was  ashy 
pale.  Mrs.  Fisher  only  said  : 

"  No,  no  ;  I  did  what  I  could.  But  I  am  only  a  woman. 
And  I  speak  German  so  ill." 

But  by  this  time  even  the  taciturn  Jackson,  now  so 
voluble,  had  forgotten  her.  He  was  beside  himself  in  his 
account  of  the  revulsion  of  feeling  at  the  ward-room. 

"  We  waited,  and  we  waited,  blue  enough,  I  can  tell  you. 
You  know  how  bad  it  was  in  Slab  Bridge,  and  number  four 
was  as  bad." 

"  That  was  the  first  vote  I  had,"  said  Fisher. 

"The  first  any  of  us  had.  And  we  had  all  the  large 
precincts.  Each  worse  than  the  other,  for  I  see  you  have 
them  here.  Square  one  hundred  and  ninety  against 
us,  and  Ofterdom's  to  come  in.  And  the  fellows 
from  there  knew  nothing.  The  whole  uay  had  been  quiet, 
and  these  Dutchmen  you  see  are  not  wire-men.  They  are 
in  the  leather  shops,  and  no  one  seems  to  have  known. 
Why,  when  the  count  was  over — there,  look  at  it :  464  to 
159.  Where  we  expected  nothing  and  worse  ; — why  the  fel 
lows  on  the  spot  did  not  believe  it.  xhey  would  not  believe 


184  MY   FRIEND   THE    BOSS. 

it.  They  re-counted  three  times,  and  they  would  be  count 
ing  now,  but  your  hero,  Mrs.  Fisher,  Jan  Hooft,  came  in 
with  his  band,  and  he  swore  he  would  hang  them  if  they 
did  not  make  up  the  return  and  seal  the  votes.  And  they 
could  not  help  it,  for  four  times  it  had  come  out  the  same 
way.  The  figures  are  burned  into  my  brain,  464  to  159. 

"  When  that  came  up  to  us,  with  twenty  people  to 
explain,  was  not  the  laugh  on  the  other  side?  See  our 
totals,  Mr.  Fisher.  We  have  one  thousand  and  sixty-three. 
They  have  nine  hundred  and  forty-five  and  there  are  one 
hundred  and  two  scattering.  You  cannot  be  everywhere, 
Mr.  Fisher,  but  you  should  have  been  in  our  ward-room." 

And  this  was  the  beginning  of  victory.  All  the  time, 
aow,  the  telephone  bell  was  ringing,  or  the  door-bell. 
Rossiter  or  Fisher  or  Miss  Bell  were  listening  at  the  tele 
phone,  or  one  or  other  of  us  was  receiving  eager  canvassers, 
who  knew  they  should  be  welcome.  Often,  indeed,  their 
news  had  come  before  them,  but  no  one  was  so  cruel  as  to 
tell  them  that.  Before  half-past  nine,  the  whole  house  was 
sure  of  the  result.  Every  maid  had  blue  and  white  ribbons 
pinned  on  her  pretty  dress,  and  Avas  dressed  as  for 
company.  All  the  men  had  fresh  gentians,  tied  with  white 
satin  in  their  button-holes.  Every  face  was  smiling.  Bruce 
and  Barnard,  with  the  Fisher  boys  and  girls  assisting,  were 
putting  candies  in  the  windows,  and  by  ten  o'clock  the 
whole  front  of  the  house  was  illuminated.  I  found  they  had 
all  the  facilities  for  this  in  readiness.  The  large  dining- 
room  was  lighted,  and  wagons  began  to  drive  up  from 
the  confectioners  and  caterers,  who  had  been  suddenly  sum 
moned  by  wire  to  send  up  stores  for  an  impromptu  feast- 
for  which  even  Mrs.  Edwards  was  not  ready. 


MY   FRIEND   THE   BOSS.  185 

"  He  would  have  been  very  angry,"  she  said  to  me  in  an 
aside,  •'  if  I  had  made  the  ices  when  I  was  not  sure." 

And  people  poured  in  so  fast  that  I  could  see  that  all  such 
preparations  would  not  be  amiss. 

Briefly,  we  had  carried  nine  wards  out  of  twelve.  Some 
we  had  swept  cleanly,  as  we  were  meant  to  do  when  the 
town  was  districted.  Some  we  had  carried  by  a  hair's 
breadth,  as  the  "  Bloody  Third,"  and  this  fickle  Fifth. 
Even  one  of  the  enemy's  wards  had  broken  on  the  aldermen 
and  school-committee,  and  we  had  saved  good  Father 
O'Reilly,  who  had  been  put  off  their  ticket  by  an  infernal 
conspiracy,  as  Jackson  told  me.  The  victory  was  complete. 
Our  mayor,  who  last  year  only  squeezed  in  by  a  thousand 
or  so,  when  the  brewery  was  divided,  had  a  fair  majority  of 
five  thousand  over  everything.  But  this  was  little,  if  his 
hands  had  been  tied.  Instead  of  that,  we  had  the  best 
school-committee  we  had  chosen  for  years,  we  had  nine  out 
of  twelve  aldermen,  with  councilmen  in  a  proportion  even 
larger.  One  by  one,  ladies  from  the  neighborhood  dropped 
in.  One  by  one,  all  the  gentlemen  I  had  met  at  the  meet 
ings  for  consultation  dropped  in.  There  had  gathered  a 
party  of  a  hundred  of  the  most  cheerful  people  in  the  world, 
when  a  band  of  music  was  heard  and  we  all  went  out  upon 
the  large  piazza  to  welcome  a  delegation.  Fisher  and  the 
ladies  of  the  house,  with  the  children,  stood  together  in  the 
portico. 

It  was  the  same  procession  of  the  wire-workers  which  we 
had  seen  in  the  morning  at  the  polling  places.  But,  to 
night,  in  a  barouche  close  following  the  band  of  music,  sat 
the  newly-elected  mayor,  the  president  of  the  Amphions, 


186  MY   FRIEND   THE   BOSS. 

Jan  Hooft  and  Jan  Hooft's  daughter,  the  child  whose  sing 
ing  had  so  delighted  me  at  the  school  anniversary.  The 
band  passed  the  portico,  halted  and  continued  playing  till 
they  had  come  quite  to  the  end  of  the  Lohengrin  wedding 
march,  which  they  played  magnificently.  A  policeman  of 
immense  grandeur,  who  felt  the  full  importance  of  his 
position,  flung  open  the  door  of  the  carriage,  and  then 
waited  till  the  music  was  finished. 

Then  the  mayor  stepped  out,  handed  out  Jan  Hooft  and 
the  little  girl,  and  Mr.  Beekman  followed  them. 

Fisher  stepped  forward  and  shook  hands  with  all. 

The  mayor  said  but  a  word  :  "Mr.  Fisher,  we  owe  this 
victory,  first  to  Mr.  Jan  Hooft,  and  next  to  you.  It  is 
with  pleasure  that  I  see  you  two  join  your  hands.  In  such 
a  union  Tamworth  is  safe."  Turning  to  the  crowd,  he 
cried,  "  Three  cheers  for  Jan  Hooft  and  John  Fisher !  " 

And  band  and  crowd  cheered  with  a  will. 

Jan  Hooft  almost  crushed  Fisher's  hand  in  his  eager  grasp. 

"  Herr  Fisher,"  he  said,  and  he  stopped.  "  Herr 
Fisher,"  and  he  stopped  again.  "  Herr  Fisher,  Dutchmen 
be  poor,  but  they  know  they  friends.  They  be  honest,  Herr 
Fisher.  They  hate  lies,  Herr  Fisher.  I  have  come  mit 
my  daughter,  mit  all  dem  people,  to  dank  Madame  Fisher 
for  all  she  am  done  for  dem  Dutchmen,  when  dey  was  sick 
and  poor,  Herr  Fisher." 

And  he  looked  round,  wistfully.  He  looked  at  Mrs. 
Fisher  with  surprise.  Then  he  saw  Mary  Bell,  cowering 
behind  that  lady. 

' '  I  see  her,"  he  cried  gladly  ;  ' '  she  shall  not  be  hided. 
Come,  come,  come,  Elspeth." 


MY   FRIEND   THE    BOSS.  187 

And  the  child  by  this  time  caught  his  wish,  rushed  for 
ward  between  Mr.  Fisher  and  Mrs.  Fisher,  and  hid  herself, 
as  she  had  done  on  the  day  of  the  school  celebration,  in 
Mary  Bell's  arms. 

In  a  moment  more,  she  remembered  that  she  was  to  give 
the  magnificent  bouquet  she  brought  to  her  benefactress. 
She  did  so. 

"She  be  one  little  girl,  Mrs.  Fisher,"  said  Jan  Hooft 
to  Mary  Bell.  "She  cannot  say  notting,  she  be  so  happy. 
But  all  de  Dutch  Avomen  in  the  town,  Frau  Fisher,  know 
who  be  de  friend  who  saved  me,  wen  dat  hund  had  me 
under  he  foot,  Frau  Fisher,  and  de  Dutch  men,  who  be  poor, 
Frau  Fisher,  but  be  honest,  and  de  Dutch  women,  Frau 
Fisher,  dey  send  you  dem  flowers,  Frau  Fisher,  mit  deir 
love,  Frau  Fisher,  und  deir  danke." 

John  Fisher  recovered  himself  in  this  long  speech.  Mary 
Bell  kissed  the  child,  and  led  her  into  the  house. 

Fisher  stepped  forward  and  cried,  "Three  cheers  for  Jan 
Hooft  and  all  honest  men  !  "  and  the  crowd  cheered  lustily. 

"Now  come  in,  men,"  he  said  more  colloquially. 
"  Come  in  !  Come  in  !  Have  something  to  eat.  We  have 
no  lager,  Walter,"  he  said  to  one  of  them,  "  but  I  believe 
there  is  cold  water." 

And  the  crowd  passed  in.  Not  one  person  in  a  hundred 
knew  what  had  passed,  or  understood  the  incident. 

From  that  time  till  midnight,  we  were  shaking  hands, 
congratulating,  welcoming  and  being  welcomed.  Every 
man  who  had  a  right  arm  was  carrying  out  pails  of  coffee, 
and  lemonade,  and  drinks  without  a  name,  but  without 
spirit,  upon  the  piazza. 


188  MY  FRIEND   THE    BOSS. 

"  Have  you  forgiven  me,  Beekman,  that  I  slept  so  sound 
ly  the  night  you  serenaded  us,  or  was  it  the  ladies  you 
serenaded?  They  heard  you,  as  I  think  you  know."  This 
was  John  Fisher's  apology  to  the  Amphions. 

And  Beekman  intimated,  with  a  laugh,  that  in  the  joy  of 
the  victory,  all  was  forgiven  and  forgotten. 


CHAPTER  XXVII,  AND  LAST. 

I  SLEPT  wretchedly  that  night.  Were  it  not  that  I 
remember,  too  well,  Mrs.  Fisher's  exaggerations,  in  speaking 
of  such  matters,  I  should  say  that  I  did  not  sleep  at  all. 

Was  it  that  I  had  drunk  too  often,  from  the  fragrant  Mocha? 
at  the  forty-four  Ladies'  Rallying  Rooms  which  I  had  visit 
ed?  Or  had  I  forgotten  my  own  rules,  when  tempted  in  the 
evening  by  Mrs.  Edwards'  handiwork,  at  our  own  house  ? 

Was  the  victory  such  a  marvel  that  I  must  lie  awake  all 
night  to  think  over  the  details  ? 

Or,  alas,  was  it  that,  to  my  careful  watchfulness,  the 
triumphant  evening  left  no  longer  one  quiver  of  uncertain 
hope  as  to  Miss  Bell's  likes  or  dislikes  among  her  admirers  ? 

Or,  alas,  again  ;  was  it  this  mystery  which  connected  her 
so  certainly  with  the  affair  of  the  necklace?  Was  she 
capable  of  pawning  a  tinsel  gewgaw  for  money,  even  if  she 
had  the  excuse  that  she  was  to  use  the  money  for  the  noblest 
purpose?  And  had  she  not  willingly  left  me  in  the  notion 
which  she  knew  I  had,  as  Jan  Hooft  had,  that  it  was  Mrs. 
Fisher  had  done  that  bad  thing? 


MY   FRIEND   THE   BOSS-  189 

All  together,  I  did  not  sleep,  or  I  lid  not  think  I  did. 
Had  there  been  a  serenade  that  night,  I  should  surely  have 
been  the  first  to  know  it. 

And  I  was,  naturally  enough,  the  first  in  the  breakfast- 
'•oom. 

But  John  Fisher  joined  me  soon.     He  was  radiant. 

"  Surely  life  is  worth  living,"  he  said,  "  when  things  can 
be  done  so  cleanly  and  thoroughly.  How  can  anybody  doubt 
of  the  people,  if  you  only  make  the  people  to  care  for  itself?' 

I  stammered  out  some  congratulation.  He  really  did  not 
observe  that  I  was  so  dull. 

"  I  am  used  to  surprises,"  he  said.  "  The  unexpected  is 
what  happens.  But  not  the  unexpected  all  along  the  line. 
Our  ladies  are  late,"  he  said,  "and  as  for  the  children,  I 
would  not  have  them  called.  Once  a  year,  and  after  a 
glorious  victory,  they  may  sleep  over." 

At  that  moment  one  of  the  maids  came  in  to  say  that  Mrs. 
Grattan  was  in  the  conservatory  and  sent  word  that  she 
would  be  in,  in  a  few  minutes,  when  Donald  had  given  her 
some  more  roses. 

"Mrs.  Fisher  will  not  be  down,"  he  said,  "but  where  is 
Miss  Bell?"  The  girl  smiled,  and  said  she  saw  Miss  Bell 
go  out  in  the  garden. 

"Oh,  then  it  is  all  right,"  said  Fisher,  laughing. 
' '  Rossiter  breakfasts  with  us  and  they  will  be  in  by  the  time 
the  coffee  is  cold."  And  he  rang  for  breakfast. 

We  were  alone  together,  and  I  might  as  well  make  him 
solve  my  mysteries. 

' '  Mr.  Rossiter  and  Miss  Bell  understand  each  other  very 
well,"  I  said,  doubtfully. 

"  I  do  not  see  why  there  should  be  any  mystery  to  you," 


190  MY   FRIEND    THE    BOSS. 

he  said.  "  I  am  not  at  liberty  to  say  anything.  But  I  can 
not  help  your  guessing  what  you  choose.  He  is  a  fine 
fellow  and  she  is  a  queen  among  women.  Nothing  could  be 
better — if  they  choose  to  engage  themselves,"  he  added,  as  if 
to  save  himself  from  telling  anything. 

"  Yet  I  cannot  understand,"  blundered  I.  "You  would 
not  have  thought,  that  even  for  such  a  purpose,  she  would 
have  pawned  a  necklace." 

"  Mary  Bell  pawn  the  necklace  !"  Poor  Fisher  looked  as 
if  I  had  struck  him.  "She  never  saw  the  necklace.  Yet 
but  for  her,  it  would  have  ruined  us  all." 

"  She  certainly  used  the  money,"  I  said  coolly.  "  She 
certainly  paid  Jan  Hooft's  debts." 

"And  why  should  she  not  pay  his  debts  if  she  choose  to? 
Miss  Bell's  fortune  is  three  millions,  if  it  is  a  cent.  Her 
charities  are  not  of  the  advertised  kind,  but  no  woman  in 
America  handles  money  more  freely  and  more  wisely.  Is  it 
possible  you  did  not  know  this  before?" 

I  said  no,  and  the  reader  knows  that  this  was  so.  I  said 
that  something  he  said  to  me  in  the  mill  had  taught  me 
that  Mrs.  G-rattan  was  a  rich  woman,  but  I  had  supposed 
that  his  niece,  if  Miss  Bell  were  his  niece — she  often  called 
him  Uncle  John, — owed  her  home  to  his  kindness,  and  to 
the  same  kindness  owed  her  freedom  from  daily  toil  and  from 
anxiety. 

John  Fisher  looked  at  me  with  amazement  as  I  said  all 
this,  and  then  said  very  frankly  : 

"  That  looks  well  for  her — and  for  you,"  he  added,  after 
a  pause. 

"  I  am  not  the  only  person  so  deceived,"  I  said.       "  Mr. 


MY    FRIEND    THE    BOSS.  191 

Rossiter  took  my  advice  on  Monday,  as  to  whether,  with 
fifteen  hundred  dollars  a  year,  he  could  make  a  home  which 
should  be  fit  for  her." 

"Did  Rossiter  ask  that?  By  Jove!  I  like  him  better 
than  ever.  Hush  !  Here  they  are." 

Here  they  were.  She  came  in  radiant  with  beauty  and 
happiness. 

George  Rossiter  was  radiant  with  manly  pride.  They 
held  each  other's  hands  for  one  moment  in  the  hall.  Then 
she  turned  abruptly  to  me. 

"Mr.  Mellen,  we  need  have  no  secrets  from  you.  You 
have  been  our  true  friend,  and  we  know  you  will  be." 

At  this  moment,  Cordelia  Grattan  pinned  a  bunch  of  ex 
quisite  roses  in  the  breast  of  her  dress. 

And  I  was  able,  in  a  blundering  way,  to  say  I  knew  their 
life  would  be  very  happy. 


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